


Magic

by REDACTEDinformation



Series: Books on Magic, Discovery, and War [1]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Magic, Angst, Can be read as Zim/Reader, F/M, Graphic Description, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Summaries, M/M, Mostly Zim/OC, Slow Burn, Strong Female Characters, Tall Zim (Invader Zim), Zim and Dib are in high school, Zim is tall
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:34:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 13
Words: 44,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28718142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/REDACTEDinformation/pseuds/REDACTEDinformation
Summary: Life hasn't been the same for Dib Membrane since an alien from outer space decided to land on Earth and take over the world. He wished his classmates would stop teasing him, his sister to work with him, and his dad to actually believe him. He wondered life would ever be normal for him, he got the answer when a mysterious girl barged into his life out of nowhere.Zim was getting sick of staying on this backwater planet for over four years with no progress. The Almighty Tallests were waiting for him to conquer Earth, he has to complete his mission! Wait, who is that human girl and why is she distracting him from his global conquest?!
Relationships: Original Characters/Original Characters, Professor Membrane/Original Character(s), ZADF - Relationship, Zim (Invader Zim)/Original Female Character(s), Zim (Invader Zim)/Reader
Series: Books on Magic, Discovery, and War [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2105265
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! And welcome to my first story in many, many years. I haven't written in so long and this is my first post on AO3 so please be kind to me! I must warn you guys, I do a lot of perspective switching, so if it gets confusing, I am so sorry. I had a couple of friends to proofread a few chapters and some of them said it got confusing. The story is fully finished, I plan on releasing it weekly (depending on the length of the chapter/if I edited it in time) and I hope you all enjoy it!

She looked at the absurd green, almost teal, house that was smacked down in between two normal homes. _You’ve got to be kidding me,_ she thought to herself. _This? THIS is the house that has so much magic stored in it?_ Large gnomes, two pufferfish, and a flamingo decorated the front lawn. She looked around some more and saw an “I love Earth!” flag on its lawn and a men-only bathroom sign attached to the front door. _Who the hell lives here? An alien?_ Just as she thought that a guy walked out of the weird-looking house. He had green skin. The guy had freakin’ green skin and didn’t have a nose or ears. 

The girl sighed, “You _have_ to be joking.” She said this to no one in particular and followed him as he walked toward a high school. No, wait. It says, _Hi Skool_ . _Again, our society fails us._ She watched the conspicuous alien walk into the building, making sure he stayed there so she could go back to his hideous house. The gnomes stared into her and the girl narrowed her eyes at them. She walked up the front steps and knocked, she wasn’t expecting someone to actually answer the door.

“Welcome home, son!” Two robots greeted her, sparks flying out like they were about to break.

She didn’t know how to react, “Uh...hi…?”

“Oh my! Look at your hair! It’s so long!” The woman robot with a pink tutu pulled on it.

“Ow!” she pulled back and pushed the robot away from her. “The hell is wrong with you?”

“You shouldn’t say such words, missy! It’s very unlady-like!” The male robot shook his claw at her like it was disciplining her. 

“Well, tell your robo-wife to not pull on other people’s hair!” she glared at the pair. “Wait, why am I talking to you two?” 

The girl marched off the front steps and turned the corner, away from the cul-de-sac, and rubbed the spot where the robot pulled her hair. She needed to get into that house, the wards on her place right now were going to attract a certain someone she’s not ready to meet yet. The young magician crossed her arms as she strolled through the relatively empty suburb, stopping at a house with a literal electric fence. She narrowed her eyes and put on her sunglasses. 

_What the fuck?_ She thought as her glasses showed a large field of magic humming out of it. Two. There were two houses that had a magic field that could produce enough power to kill someone. Now all she needed was a way in and a storage system strong enough to harness that power. She smirked as she walked away, _this is going to be easy._ Little did she know she was absolutely wrong.

The mysterious girl turned corner after corner until she was walking in a square while she mumbled an incantation. Her hands swirling around each other, making an endless loop, if anyone dared followed her they would be stuck in this spell until they stopped. She sighed as she finished and walked straight toward an empty house, her hideout until she could get enough magic stored up. 

The girl pressed her thumb against the keyhole and muttered the word unlock in German. The lock turned and the door opened, the house was empty and dark, she left the blinds closed and there was no reason for furniture. She closed the door, locked it, and traced the edge with her fingers; the door glowed as her spell completely sealed her in that dark house. Satisfied with her work, she went upstairs to her makeshift bedroom. Sure, she had to sleep on the floor and her clothes were blankets, but it was better than nothing. The magician placed her sunglasses next to her backpack and took out a worn down notebook, she stretched her fingers and flipped the pages over. Seemingly impossible calculations were scribbled all over the place, notes about a blade that could kill gods were carelessly taped into the book, and now a map was being drawn on one of the few empty pages. The hideous green house and the electric fence both got a gold star next to them.

“Lucky you,” she said to herself.

\---

“You won’t get away this time Zim!” Dib screamed, chasing after his long time enemy with a special taser that would paralyze any alien lifeform for three days.

Zim smirked as he ran across several of his neighbors’ yards. “You’ve been saying that since you’ve met me Dib-stink! And never once have you caught the AMAZING ZIM!” he shouted back. Dib scowled and plunged into the bushes. “Ha! Given up already, Dib-human?! I expected nothing less from a--” he screeched when he realized Dib was in front of him with a cocky smirk.

“I’ve got you now!”

Zim pointed at something behind Dib, “Hey, what’s that?!”

“I’m not falling for that one again Zim!”

He sighed, “Okay, fine you got me. I guess I have to admit defeat.”

Dib lowered his taser and looked at Zim in bewilderment, “Wait, really?”

Zim looked back up, “...no,” and kicked Dib’s shins. 

Dib fell on his face and groaned in pain, while Zim ran back to his base. 

“Ha! Victory for Zim! I win again, you disgusting cretin!” 

The teenager got back up and rubbed his aching chin, “You won’t win next time, Zim! I’ll keep fighting you until you get off this planet!”

Zim stuck out his tongue at the big-headed boy and opened his front door.

“Welcome home, son!” The two robots said for the second time today. He pushed them out of the way as he walked in and slammed the door shut. Zim removed his wig and contacts and sighed with relief, those things were never comfortable. He placed his disguise on the table next to the couch and started walking toward his very normal toilet in his very normal kitchen. 

“Uh, sir?” the computer chimed.

Zim stopped, “What?”

“A human came by today while you were at school.”

“Huh?! A human?! Who?! What did they want?!” Zim shook his fist as he demanded his computer for information.

“I don’t know! All she did was walk up to the front door, knock, and then leave after the parental units spoke with her.”

Zim hummed, “Let me see the footage of this human.”

The large screen in the living room showed a girl wearing a black t-shirt with some sort of design on the front, black skinny jeans, and ankle boots with a slight heel to them. He watched as she glared at his gnomes and yelled at his robot parents.

The Invader narrowed his eyes, “Who are you?” he asked to the still image of her looking back at his base while she rubbed the tender spot of her scalp. He had a feeling she would be back and he was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter, done. Second chapter, on its way. 
> 
> I would like to thank the people who inspired me to write again, please check out their stories if you haven't already!  
> mysafeplaceishere  
> MetalMistress  
> forlornTimekeeper  
> OysterChateau
> 
> All of them are amazing writers and I hope they continue to write!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who gave me a kudos! It warms my heart and I can't wait for all of you to read what's to come!
> 
> Also, I keep forgetting to add more tags so I would keep going back to add more, srry.

The magician sat under a tree as she watched the green house again, she grabbed more chips only to realize there was no more. She sighed, picked up the bag, and started folding it in half lengthwise, and folded it again. The girl kept folding until the trash was made into an interlocking letter fold, she tossed the trash into her bag and looked back up at the house. That green boy hasn’t come out of the house all day, she crossed her arms and leaned back on the tree. It was a school day, she thought he would go to that horrible “Hi Skool” of his but there was no sign of him. She checked her phone to see it was 3:12 PM,  _ I’ve been sitting here all fuckin’ day. C’mon you weird alien boy, come out of your stupid house. _ Her hair was in a bun today, she was not going to deal with any hair-pulling this time. She kept watching until a large-headed boy walk toward the strange house,  _ Who the fuck are you? _

Dib looked around the school,  _ Zim isn’t here...he’s planning something. _ He saw his little sister trudge out with the portable game console in her hands and ran toward her. “Gaz! Zim wasn’t here today! What do you think he’s planning? Something horrible I’m sure!”

Gaz didn’t even look up from her game and turned a corner to get to their house so she could have some peace, “Who cares? It’s Zim. Now leave me alone.”

Dib completely ignored her and continued, “What if he’s planning to kidnap all the dogs in the world and turn them into Hellhounds?! Hellhounds, Gaz!” he turned to his scary sister as he wildly gestured.

“Then good for him, that would be cool,” she responded.

“No! It wouldn’t! I’m going to his base and find out what he’s hiding!” Dib ran off in a different direction while Gaz kept her eyes on her game. She kept walking until she reached the Membrane’s household with the electric fence and opened the door.

“Hello, daughter! How was school?” A floating tablet hovered over to her as she shut the front door.

“Boring. We don’t learn anything there,” she grumbled as she sat on her couch and lifted her feet onto the coffee table.

“That’s good to hear! Where is your brother?” her father asked, completely ignoring her statement.

“At Zim’s house, trying to figure out his next evil plan or something.”

“Ah, well I’m glad your brother is playing with his green foreign friend!” the ignorant father hovered back into the kitchen, leaving Gaz to her own devices. 

Dib slowly crept up to the fence with the taser in his hands, he was so focused on trapping Zim that he didn’t notice a girl approaching him.

“You know he can probably see you.”

The teenager, trying to turn his body toward the voice, lost control of his balance in the process and fell on his ass as he screamed. He looked up to see a girl with a ballet bun on her head and an amused smirk on her face. Just as he was about to ask who she was, Zim came bursting out of his house.

“Ha! Almighty Zim knew you would be back! And you’re working with the Dib-monkey!” he shouted from his front door, pointing to the girl.

The girl arched her eyebrow at the green boy, “Okay, first of all. Calm down. Second of all, I’m not working with…’Dib-monkey.’” She looked down at the big-headed boy and gently nudged his foot as she mentioned his stupid nickname.

“LIAR! YOU ARE LYING!” He screamed at her.

“STOP YELLING AT ME!” The girl shouted back, standing her ground. She glared at the alien as he scowled at her. Dib got up whilst those two screamed at each other.

“Who are you?!” Zim demanded.

“I--”

“WHO?!”

“Will you--”

“WHO ARE YOU?! TELL ME! TELL ALMIGHTY ZIM WHO YOU ARE!”

The girl crossed her arms and stared at “almighty Zim,” her glare bored into him as she continued to silently judge him for his loudness. Her lips curled upward as the alien started to sweat.

There was a hollow silence as the two stared at each other, Zim was getting nervous.  _ Why...isn’t this Earth-monkey talking? Why is she not scared of ZIM?!  _

Dib looked back and forth between the girl and the Irken, he suddenly realized Zim was distracted. He glanced down at his taser and right when he was about to attack, something tackled him.

“Hi, Mary! Whatcha’ doin’?!” 

A green dog sat on his stomach and stared at him. Dib looked to his side to see the taser a foot away from him. He nervously glanced at Zim’s robot servant and back at his weapon.

“GIR! TAKE THAT ELECTROSHOCK WEAPON AWAY FROM DIB-STINK!” Zim broke eye contact first and pointed at the taser. 

“No! It’s mine!” Dib yelled.

Before GIR could do anything, the girl picked up the taser, “I’ll be taking that, thanks.”

Dib pushed the disguised robot off of him, “Hey! That’s not yours! I need that to defeat Zim! He’s--”

“An alien? Yeah, I know.” She calmly stated while the boys’ jaws dropped and the green dog ran around her, giggling like a mad man.

“I’m not an alien! I’m a very normal human Earth-monkey!” Zim was sweating now, this human girl was different, she saw through his brilliant disguise.

“Yeah because every human has green skin and no nose or ears. So normal,” the sarcasm was dripping from her voice. 

Dib shouted out a thank you, completely exasperated that someone finally believed Zim was an alien without him pointing it out.

“It’s part of my skin condition! I  _ am _ normal!” he was starting to panic. “GIR! ATTACK THAT HUMAN GIRL!”

GIR stopped running and saluted Zim, “Yes, my master!” and hugged the girl’s leg.

The girl scoffed, “Wow. I’m in so much pain.”

“GIR! I SAID TO ATTACK NOT HUG HER!” 

“Aww, but she’s so pretty!” GIR looked up at the girl with a huge smile. 

The magician shot him an amused smile and gently pet GIR on the head. GIR giggled and went back to hugging her while she looked back at the two boys. “Look, I’m not here to expose you as an alien. I don’t care.”

“What?!” Dib looked at her in confusion, “But he’s here to destroy the Earth!”

“So what?” she crossed her arms and gave the boys an uninterested expression. The green guy looked at her in confusion while the boy with a huge head looked like he had been slapped.

Dib shook his head and glared at the girl, “So you’re going to team up with the enemy?!”

“What? No. I’m not here to pick a side. I’m here for a different reason,” she looked away, stuffing her new taser in her bag.

“And what would that be?” 

Dib turned to Zim, surprised that he was the one to ask.

“That...,” she looked at both of them, “...is none of your business.” She gave them an artificial sweet smile and walked off.

“Hey!” Zim shouted and started to run after her. With his long legs, he quickly caught up to her and grabbed her wrist. “Tell me what you are planning! You are here to stop me like Dib-stink, aren’t you?!” He got close to her face, scowling.

“I suggest you let go of me,” she said calmly. 

“Or what?” he smirked.

The magician grinned as she quickly moved her fingers and pushed the tall green boy. So much force erupted that he flew back, landing on Dib who had been following them this whole time. “Or that.” She turned on her heel and quickly walked around the corner. The two boys scrambled to get up and started running after her, only to find that she disappeared.

“What the hell?” Dib asked.

Zim scowled, “She couldn’t have gotten far,” and kept running. 

Dib followed him, wondering who that girl was. “How did she push you that hard?”

“Why are you even still here?!” Zim shouted.

“She took my taser! I need it back!” Dib shouted back and glared at his longtime enemy.

The two failed to realize they were going in circles. The magician stood back and watched as the alien and human boy fell for her spell. She smirked as they yelled at each other and glanced down to see the green “dog” still clinging to her.

“Hey,” she gently nudged the dog’s shoulder. “I have to get going now, go back to your master.”

GIR released her and smiled with his tongue sticking out, “Bye pretty lady! I hope we meet again soon!”

The girl bent down to the dog’s eye level and pet his head, “I’m sure we will.”

GIR's smile got wider, waved at her, and ran across the street to run with his master and big-headed Mary.

The skilled magician shook her head as the two didn’t notice the green dog suddenly running with them. “Idiots,” she whispered and walked over to her abandoned house.

She closed the door, sealed it as usual, and climbed up the steps to her bedroom, she gently placed her backpack near the door and laid down on the carpeted floor. The girl patted the ground next to her, looking for the notebook that was still open to the map, and brought it up to her face when she finally found it. Her gaze lingered at the gold star placed on top of the green house she drew.

“Zim, huh? Interesting name.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! End of chapter 2. Chapter 3 is coming up soon and I promise you they're going to get longer. Way longer. Like why did I write so much longer. Hope you all enjoy!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! And welcome to chapter 3! I'm going to be honest, I'm a nervous wreck whenever I upload a chapter. And there's 43 in total. Help.

Zim grumbled as he walked through the crowded halls of the stupid high school, he and the Dib-monkey spent hours looking for the human girl. Something was off about her, she barely even touched him and he fell back a good five feet. The pathetic Dib-human gave up on the search, said he was “too tired.” Zim scoffed, humans are truly weak. He walked into his first-period class and sat in the very front like usual, he crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.  _ I will find you Earth girl and I WILL learn about your plans. You cannot hide from an Almighty Irken Invader! From Almighty ZIM!  _ He started cackling as he thought this, his laughter getting louder and louder.

“Zim!”

He stopped when he realized the whole class was staring at him, he sat straight up and laced his fingers together on his desk, turning to the annoyed educator. “Yes?” he asked innocently.

“Would you like to tell the class what is so funny?”

“Oh, it was nothing. Just a very funny joke is all,” he smiled at the disgusting Earth pig who taught the teenagers English. The filthy schoolmistress rolled her eyes and started up her lesson again, something about a book with a high temperature. 

The whole day was uneventful: he sat through his classes, argued with the Dib-stink, got pushed by bullies, got revenge on said bullies, tripped Dib-human in front of the school, the usual. During the short breaks in between, he would check his security cameras around his base, no sign of the mysterious girl...not yet anyway. The bell rang throughout the halls, indicating that school was finally over. Zim was the first out the door, never carrying around books or notes, there was no use for them. He quickly climbed down the front steps of the school, taking large strides, trying to get to his base as quickly as possible. That was his plan anyway until the Dib-filth stopped right in front of him.

“Okay, who is she?”

Zim arched his eyebrow at the horrible human, “What are you talking about?”

Dib sighed, “The girl! From yesterday! Who is she? Did you find out?”

Zim sneered and pushed the Dib-monkey off to the side, “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t.”

“Okay, so you didn’t.”

He stopped and turned to the ugly human, “YOU DON’T KNOW THAT DIB! MAYBE I DID FIND OUT WHO SHE WAS AND DON’T WANT TO TELL YOU! DIDN’T THINK ABOUT THAT, DID YOU?!” he screeched at the human while pointing at him.

“Okay, then what’s her name?” Dib asked calmly.

Zim slowly lowered his finger and furrowed his brows, “Her...name…? Uh...her name...DOES NOT MATTER! IT IS HER PLAN THAT MATTERS! YES! AND WHAT A GREAT PLAN IT IS, THAT PLAN!” he gave Dib a shit-eating grin while he placed his hands on his hips.

Dib gave Zim a deadpan stare and walked around the alien to get to his house. If Zim doesn’t know, then he was going to find out himself.

Zim watched as the human walked away from him, his smile turned into an evil smirk.  _ Ha! I knew I would fool him. I’ll just sit back, let him do all the work, and when he figures out her evil plan, I’ll take it for myself! I’m a genius! _

\---

The young magician sat back and watched the house with the electric fence, she knew Zim would be watching more closely, so might as well save herself from the headache and observe the other one instead. She picked up her smoothie, drank the rest of it, closed the cap, and walked over to a nearby trash can next to a bus stop to dispose of the empty square bottle. As she was walking back, a loud distinct voice could be heard from a few blocks down.  _ Jesus Christ, I can hear him from here. _ She stared in the direction of the voice and turned her head when she noticed a girl with pretty purple hair stomp into the house she was observing. Just as she was about to approach that house, a familiar-looking boy with scythe hair stormed into the home.  _ You have GOT to be kidding me.  _ She was still a few feet away as she saw another familiar boy with green skin creeping around the corner, he looked around to see if anyone was watching him, slowly opened the front door, and dove right into the house. The girl snorted at the ridiculous scene, she spun her hand around her head to remove her glamour and crossed the street.

She peaked her head in the door, the girl with dark purple hair was on the couch playing a game. “Uh...hi!”

The gamer looked up at the girl and back down at her game, “What do you want?”

“Is Dib home? I’m one of his friends.”

The purple-haired girl stared at the other girl like she grew another head, “You? You’re friends with my brother?”

The magician gave her a confident smile back while her hands were ready to cast a confusion spell behind her back, “Yeah! We met a while back and--”

“I don’t care. He’s upstairs being weird,” her attention was back on her game.

“Great!” the girl quickly went up the stairs and looked down at the dark hallway.  _ Do they not have a light switch? Why the hell is it pitch black? _ She suddenly felt eyes on her as she walked toward the only room that had light coming out of it. The girl started running and quickly opened the door. 

Dib screamed as the door flung open, revealing the mysterious girl, “How the hell did you get in my house?!”

“You left the door open.”

“No, I didn’t!”

They suddenly heard a laugh coming from the hallway, Zim slowly came into view while rubbing his hands together like a cliché supervillain. “You fell right into my trap, human!”

The girl wasn’t impressed, “What trap?”

“I knew you would be following one of us, so I, ALMIGHTY ZIM, went into Dib-monkey’s  _ filthy _ house to...to uh...trap you!”

“Uh huh, I’m sure you did.” She wasn’t listening, her hands were in front of her; the thumb and index fingers on her left hand were pressed with her right, making a rectangle like she was taking a pretend photo and observing Dib’s room.

Dib was looking at her like she went insane, “Uh...what are you doing?”

The girl perked up when she noticed a small metal box on top of Dib’s desk, “Can I have this? Thanks.” She picked up the box and shoved it in her jacket’s pocket.

“What? Hey!” Dib tried grabbing her, but she easily dodged him and pushed him, sending him to the floor. 

Zim started laughing as his enemy fell and blocked the exit with his body, “Guess you have to tell me your evil plan now, human.”

The girl climbed over Dib’s bed and opened the window, “You see, that’s where you’re wrong,” she crossed her legs and watched in amusement.

Dib’s face contorted in horror as he got up from the floor, “What are you doing?! We’re on the second floor!”

She ignored Dib and focused on Zim, “My plan isn’t evil, it’s for the greater good. Now stop getting in my way.” She flung herself back out the window, letting her magic take control.

Zim and Dib looked at each other wide-eyed and looked back at the window, they scrambled to peer out the large circular opening. They expected to see a girl injured on the ground instead they saw her standing there perfectly safe.

She smirked at their dumbfounded faces and gave them a flirtatious wave, “Bye boys!”

“Wait!” Dib yelled, but she was already walking away. He felt Zim push him out of the way, his PAK legs extending out and giving him the control to crawl down the wall. Dib grunted as he got off his bed, ran down the stairs, and out the front door. He looked to his left, Zim was running after her, which meant he was running after Zim. The large-headed boy followed the Irken, turning the corner only to run straight into him. The two tumbled on the sidewalk, Zim growled and pushed Dib off of him. 

“Where’d she go?!” Dib looked all around him, the girl disappeared again.

Zim narrowed his eyes down at the street, “I don’t know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 will be out on Thursday! Stay tuned! And don't be afraid to leave comments!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you guys know I am back at school already but uploads will be weekly. But if there are more mistakes, my bad.

It was raining today, the girl was looking up at the grey sky and watched the water fall. She was laying down on the carpet of her room, next to the window, the blinds were all the way up for once; she always loved the rain, it brought her peace. Her hair was in a high ponytail, resting against her backpack, she turned her head to the small mechanical cube she stole from Dib. The thing had some magic stored in it, she reached over to grab it, and pressed the button on the side. A hologram of Dib’s father popped up, telling his son the list of chores he had to do in the house and to return the cube back to him after he was done. The hologram said I love you to the girl that wasn’t his child and the projection stopped. She spun the three-dimensional box around the air, using her finger to swirl around one of the corners. So his father was a magician, a powerful one at that. She looked him up on her shitty smartphone she bought at a local Wal-Mart, Professor Membrane: a brilliant scientist that created super toast and Perpetual Energy Generator. She couldn’t find anything else except his multiple awards and other scientific theories, his first name wasn’t even listed. Unless his first name was actually Professor, but who the hell names their kid Professor? 

She stopped playing with the cube and let it drop in her hand, she sat up and crossed her legs to examine the edges carefully, the bottom had a plate screwed down at all four corners. The girl positioned her middle and index finger at one of the screws, she slowly turned her wrist to the left and kept turning until it came loose, falling onto the carpet. She repeated those steps on the rest of the three corners and moved the bottom plate next to her foot. It was too dark to clearly see the small interior of the cube, she pointed with her index finger again and whispered, “Lux.”

A small light appeared at the top of her finger, illuminating the dark room with white light. She peered into the cube, the center had a sphere being held up with small metal tubing.  _ What’s the point of having the box then? _ She set down the metal object, shook her hand to get rid of the light spell, grabbed her sunglasses, put them on, and stared at the cube again. The center was glowing with magic. She needed to get into that house again. And quickly. The girl got up and grabbed her navy green anorak jacket, she climbed down the stairs as she put up her hood and pushed her hair to the right side.

_ Off to the Membrane’s household, I go. _

\---

Zim was under a tree, staring at the disgusting liquid falling from the sky. 

“Stupid Earth and its stupid water,” he mumbled to himself. He had already taken five paste baths this morning, he won’t let the polluted water get to him today! A drop landed on him and he quickly wiped it off, he was waiting. He knew, oh, he knew that Earth girl will be showing up eventually he felt it in his squeedlyspooch. It was the same road she kept disappearing to, so that meant she had to be coming from that direction. He would bet his PAK on it. Zim’s left antenna shifted under his wig, someone was coming. The mechanical spider legs came out of his back and pushed him up to a steady branch, retracting when he safely landed. More water dropped on him.

He was right! Well of course he was right, he is almighty ZIM! The girl was walking down the sidewalk, she didn’t seem to care that she was getting wet, her hands were stuffed in her pockets. Zim smirked, he was ready this time, he wasn’t going to let the girl get away. She suddenly stopped and slowly turned her head to the exact tree he was in.  _ What? _ She kept staring, she was staring at him. He froze, he couldn’t move! Why couldn’t he move?!

“Nice try, Zim!” she shouted and kept walking.

_ HOW?!  _ He was falling.  _ Oh no. _ He fell head first on the wet grass, he still couldn’t move. The paste was wearing off, he could already feel the burn on his forehead. Zim groaned into the wet grass.  _ I will get you, you stupid disgusting Earth-ape! You will regret doing this to ALMIGHTY ZIM! _

\---

The talented magician yawned into her hand and slowed down as she reached Dib's house. She stood under the little archway so she wouldn’t get more wet, her fingers came together in a claw-like motion while her arms extended out, she flicked her wrists, and all the water flung off of her. The girl rang the doorbell as she took her hood off, the boy she’s been tormenting slowly opened the door.

“You!” he shouted.

She smiled, “Hey Dib! So good to see you! Can I come in?”

“What? No!”

She pushed Dib off to the side and walked right in, “Thanks!”

Dib gave an annoyed sigh and shut the door closed, “What do you want this time?”

The girl turned to him, her hand at her chest, “Why, Dib! I’m hurt. I thought we were friends.”

“I don’t even know your name!”

She swiveled toward the kitchen, not listening to him, “Yeah, cool. So is your dad home by chance?”

Dib narrowed his eyes at the girl, “No. He’s never home. Now get out.”

“Well, that’s too bad! Does that mean his lab is empty?”

“Wait...how did you know he has a lab in the basement?”

The girl turned to the boy, “You just told me,” she walked toward the door in the kitchen. “Is this the basement?”

Dib slapped his hand at the door and glared at the random girl, “You need to get out! Look, I don’t know who you are but if you’re planning to destroy the world with my dad’s inventions, I’ll stop you!”

Just when the girl was going to retort, someone crashed through the window, the smell of burning flesh filled the kitchen. Zim slowly got up from the floor, his wig askew and his antenna visible, small broken pieces of glass fell from him as he panted. “You!” he said with pure rage in his voice.

“Zim! What the hell?! I have a front door!” Dib stupidly let go of the basement door as he turned his attention to the injured alien.

“Thanks for the distraction!” the girl rushed into the dark room and sealed herself in.

“What? Hey!” Dib pounded on the door and jiggled the doorknob. 

Zim pushed Dib away, “Stand back Dib-stink!” His PAK brought out his laser cutters and carved away at the door frame.

“I’m so getting grounded for this,” Dib mumbled. 

The girl rushed down the stairs, almost falling twice until she reached the bottom. She groped at the walls until she found a light switch and turned it on. The lab wasn’t huge, great for trying to find something but shit for trying to hide. She flipped through the miscellaneous papers all over the desk until she saw a brown notebook under some papers. It looked well used, grimy spots dotted the leather, and spilled coffee stains marked the side of the book. She quickly turned over the pages, calculations after calculations were written on them, some she even recognized. The magician looked back up when she heard the door burst open, she returned the book and ran behind a large storage cabinet.

It hadn’t taken long for Zim to cut down the door and kick it in, it loudly slid down the stairs and crashed into something. Dib groaned into his hands while Zim ran down to the basement, he stopped at the base of the stairs and slowly looked around the small lab. He didn’t see the girl anywhere, despite the fact that there weren’t many places to hide. Zim stepped over the door and slowly walked toward a substantial cabinet until he heard something on the other side of the room. He took out the laser gun from his PAK and pointed at the sound. No one was there.

The magician pressed herself between the corner of the cabinet and the wall as she watched Zim’s shadow looking for her. He was getting closer, she closed her eyes and focused on the shelves on the opposite side of the room. She flicked her wrist, sending whatever gadgets Professor Membrane displayed, onto the floor. The girl released her breath she didn’t realize was holding and opened her eyes, she saw Zim’s shadow turn his head and slowly peeked her head out to the side. He was just as on edge as she was.

“Come out human! I won’t hurt you!” Zim shouted.

“Says the guy with the gun.”

She was behind him. Zim turned around, ready to fire at her but she kicked the weapon out of his hands. She tried to punch him but he easily caught her hand and pushed her backward. The girl stumbled back, trying to dodge the incoming kick but only managed to get the wind knocked out of her. She fell to the ground and looked up at the menacing stare of the green boy.

“I trained as an elite warrior! You cannot stop me!” he gloated.

She clung to her side, “Maybe not, but I bet magic can.”

“Huh?” Zim looked at her in confusion until a fireball shot out of her hand after she shouted something in a different language. He jumped to his left, thinking he completely dodged her attack, “Ha! You missed!” 

The girl raised her eyebrow and pointed to his leg, “No I didn’t.”

Zim looked down to see his right leg ablaze, his eyes widened as the flames grew larger, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” He started running in circles with his hands in the air until water was splashed on him. The Invader sighed in relief as the flame went out, only to realize that his skin was now burning from the filthy Earth water that was dumped on him. He started screaming again.

“That’s what you get for destroying my house, you jerk!” Dib shouted.

Zim started running in circles again, his skin sizzling and blistering. The girl slowly got up, clutching her side. Zim didn’t look like much, but he knew how to fight. She glanced at the leather-bound notebook that was on the desk and reached for it, but Dib got to it first.

“Get out.”

“No. Not until you give me that notebook.”

“Fine! But tell me why you need it!”

The girl scowled, “That’s none of your business!”

“It became my business when you stole my stuff! And now you’ve broken into my dad’s lab, trying to steal again! Tell me why you need it!”

Zim finally stopped screaming in pain, he was now on the ground whimpering. The magician sighed and crossed her arms, “I need the calculations written in it.”

“That’s it? You did all of this...for math problems?” Dib looked at her in annoyance.

“Not just any math problems, asshole. Those calculations can generate enough fucking magic to last a thousand lifetimes.”

Dib looked at her strangely, “Magic? What are you talking about?”

Zim slowly pulled himself up using the table, shakily pointing at his nemesis, “I…I hate you,” and collapsed back to the ground. The two humans ignored him.

“Oh please, you seriously don’t know your father is a magician?” Moments passed by as she stared at the big-headed boy until she realized he wasn’t joking. “Wait, you seriously don’t know?”

Dib furrowed his brows and looked down at his father’s notebook, he shook his head. There was no way his father, the scientist who won’t support his own son about the paranormal because it’s not real science, was a magician. He glanced back up at the girl, “You’re lying. Tell me the real reason.”

The girl looked back at him in confusion, “How could you not know your own father is a magician? I mean look at this place!” she gestured to the lab with the many tools and gadgets spewed across the room, some of which she was responsible for. “Look at all the shit he’s made! That’s not possible without it!”

“Stop lying to me!” Dib slammed the book on the table.

“Ugh! Fine! Don’t believe me?” She gathered all the papers from the desk, Dib was about to ask what she was doing, until she threw all the loose leaf up into the air. They hovered in the air. Dib’s eyes went wide, he watched as the mysterious girl swirled all the papers around with her hand, and gently placed them back on the table in a neat stack.

“Believe me now?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters five and six will be next week! I hope you guys enjoyed chapter four!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Chapter 5 is here! Thank you to everyone who gave a kudos and gave their time to read my story!

Dib’s jaw hit the floor, it had to be a trick, magic isn’t real, it can’t be real. Ghosts are real! Aliens are real! In fact, there was an alien in his basement right now! Magic can’t be real! Sure, Mortos Der Soulstealer had magic, but he’s a demon! Is this girl a demon?! If magic is real, does that mean unicorns and fairies are real? She had to be tricking him! She’s probably an alien too!

The magician stared at Dib, his face in complete shock. She was waiting for him to speak, but nothing came out of his mouth. Pain blossomed from her left side again. _ Great. Now I have to heal my bruised fucking ribs. _ Her head turned to her right as she saw the asshole who kicked her slowly get up from the floor. His face had dark green splotches all over it and his neck was covered in uncomfortable blisters.

“Oh good, you’re still alive,” she said sarcastically.

“Of course I’m still alive! Your horrible water and flame ball can’t stop Almighty Zim!” He yelled, shaking his fist at her.

“True, but now I found one of your weaknesses. What’s going to stop me from splashing water on you 24/7?” She asked with a smirk.

Zim’s face fell, “But! Humans can’t just conjure up a mass amount of liquid! That’s impossible!”

“I threw a literal fireball at you. You really think I can’t splash your face with some water?” She was getting bored of this conversation.

The alien turned to his enemy, “Dib-stink! You’re my rival on this dirtball! Not her! Tell that human girl she can’t hurt me!” Zim waited for Dib’s hideous face to respond but he just kept staring at the girl. “Uh...hello? Dib-human?” He waved his hand in front of Dib’s humongous head and turned back to the human girl. “What’d you do to the Dib-thing? And, how do I do that?”

“Oh, nothing. Just showed him some magic and now I think he’s forever stuck in his own mind,” she picked at her nails.

“MAGIC IS NOT REAL!” Dib suddenly screamed.

“Nevermind, he’s back.”

“It can’t be real! Y-you probably must’ve some sort of hologram and...and…” he wandered off again as he clutched his father’s notebook for dear life.

“And he’s gone again.” She turned to Zim, “Look, if you help me get that book out of his hands, I’ll tell you my super-secret plan.” 

Zim perked up, “Really?”

“Sure.”

He narrowed his eyes at the weird human girl, “You’re bluffing.”

“Nooooo, why would you say that?” The girl tilted her head to the side and casually leaned against the table.

“YOU’RE AN ALIEN! YOU BOTH! ARE ALIENS!” Dib shouted, pointing at the two people in front of him.

“No, I’m pretty sure I’m human with magic. Now would you calm down? I’m not here to hurt you, I just need your father’s book of calculations and I’ll be on my merry way.”

Dib glared at the girl and stepped away from her, “No.”

“No, you won’t calm down or no, you won’t give me your dad’s book?”

“Stop joking around! Tell me how you did that! Humans can’t do magic!”

The boys stared at the random girl who had entered into their lives with no warning. They watched as she sighed, picked up the chair that fell on its side, and flinched as she sat down. “What you saw, it’s not a trick. I can do magic. I threw a fucking fireball at your green friend over there. Why do you think he was running and screaming?” 

The two didn’t focus on the question, they pointed at each other and screamed, “HE IS NOT MY FRIEND!”

“Okay! Okay! Sorry.” The girl held her hands up in defense and brought them back down. She focused her energy on her right hand, a yellow glow formed around it.

Zim flinched, thinking she was going to throw another flaming sphere at him, “What are you doing?!”

The tired magician gave him an annoyed look, “I’m healing myself, jackass. You kicked me.” She pressed her hand against her injury and sighed in relief. 

Dib’s eyes widened as he stared, “So...you’re really a witch?”

“I prefer the term magician, but yes! Now that I told you why I need your father’s book, can I have it please?” she didn’t ask very nicely.

Dib looked down at his father’s notebook, still pressed against his chest, and frowned, “No.”

The girl stood up, the pain gone, and glared at Dib, “Why the fuck not?”

“Because you’re going to teach me magic.” The two started laughing at him, “Hey! I could learn magic!” He glared at both of them. “STOP LAUGHING AT ME!”

“Okay, look, I wouldn’t even call myself a master of magic. After I get your book and take Zim’s huge magic energy out of his house, I’m leaving.”

“Yeah, Dib-stink. I doubt you could even--wait, what do you mean take  _ my _ magic energy?!” Zim turned to the human who can do magic tricks.

“Your house has the most power radiating off of it and I need it,” the girl crossed her arms as she stared back at him.

“I don’t have any of your magic do-thingies! I’m an Irk--I mean a very normal human being!”

“You know your wig fell off like an hour ago right?”

Zim’s eyes widened as he felt the top of his head, the human was right. His itchy wig was on the ground, next to his foot. He scrambled to put it back on and pointed at her, “YOU SAW NOTHING! I’M PERFECTLY NORMAL!”

The girl rolled her eyes and sat back down on the chair, “Okay fine. Dib. I’ll teach you magic.”

Dib pumped his fist in the air, “Yes! Now you can’t stop me, Zim! I’ll become a master and finally--”

“Zim, I’ll help you take over this fucking world if you let me in your house.”

“WHAT?!” Both shouted at her.

“Shut up Dib! You’re so loud! I can barely hear my teammates from my own room!” a voice was heard from the kitchen.

“Sorry Gaz!” He turned to glare at the sitting girl, “Seriously? How could you turn against your own kind?”

“Oh, please. This world is completely fucked up, stop trying to save it.” She turned to the alien boy, “Well? What would it be?”

Zim narrowed his eyes, this time it wasn’t a bluff. She seems powerful from what he’s seen and it would be easy to take over this stupid planet with a competent minion by his side. “Fine. BUT! You cannot expose me as an alien!”

The girl smiled, “Deal.”

“No! No deal!” Dib was completely flabbergasted by this conversation. “You can’t just say you’ll teach me magic and then completely turn the other way and help the enemy!”

Zim glared at the distressed Earth pig, “Yes she can! You’re just afraid that I’ll win and finally destroy this pathetic planet!”

“Yes! That is my exact fear!” Dib looked at Zim like he was an idiot.

“Dib! I swear to god, I will beat you up if you don’t shut up!” Gaz yelled down at the basement and walked off.

The mysterious girl smirked, “I like your sister.”

Dib ignored her, “Are you seriously going to help Zim?!”

“Okay how about this, I’ll teach you all the spells I know first and  _ then _ help destroy the world with Zim. That way you’ll stop bitching at me,” she gave Dib an annoyed stare.

“No! That wasn’t part of the deal!” Zim angrily pointed at the girl, “You will help me, ZIM! First!”

She turned to the distressed alien, “I’ll tell you my plan in full detail if  _ you _ stop bitching at me.”

Zim stared down at the girl, he didn’t need to know that human’s plan! She even told him it wasn’t evil, but he had to admit his burning curiosity was getting to him. Now that he knows he has magic apparently stored in his base, there has to be a way for him to use it against the Dib-stink. This raised more questions: why does this Earth-monkey need it? How will she harvest it? What would this mean for his base? He didn’t need to know any of this! But the questions kept burning at him, festering in his mind and burying itself deeper and deeper, “OKAY, FINE!”

Dib was staring at Zim, there was no way he’s going to agree to this! For once, he would have the upper-hand! He could become a masterful magician and save the world! Who cares about her plan? Then again, what was her plan? She said his father could do magic, even if he still doesn’t truly believe that. He looked around the room, flinching at the mess but focused on the ceiling above him. Thick power cables lined the roof of the basement, his brilliant father figured out a way to power the whole house and his machinery with the mini Perpetual Energy Generator he created after he decided to scrap the one he was going to use for the city. It seemed impossible, but his father did it. Maybe that girl was right. His thoughts were interrupted when Zim suddenly shouted. He turned to the Irken, “Wait, seriously? You’re agreeing to this?”

“Great! Seems like we all got a deal then,” the girl got up from her seat and walked over to Dib. “The book, please.” She reached out her hand, expecting him to forfeit the book over to her.

“Tell us your plan first!” Dib demanded. 

Zim looked at the now novice magician in surprise, he didn’t want the Dib-thing to know her intentions, but his inquisitive nature was getting to him.

The great magician sighed, closed her eyes, and rubbed her temples, “You two assholes give me a headache.” She looked back up to the boys, “I’m here to kill a god. Happy now?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 6 is on Thursday and next week will only be one chapter update. Why? I honestly don't know I planned this out like...weeks ago. Some chapters do get longer so it'll be one chapter per week. I don't even wanna think about chapter 11. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...I should have mentioned the main character is named...should I add that in the tags? Her name isn't revealed until chapter 9 but y'know, she still has a name. Do you guys care? Not care? Am I overthinking this? Yes. Yes I am. I always am.

“Wait, what do you mean, kill a god? Is that even possible?” Dib looked at the annoyed magician.

“Well, I’m technically on the run from him right now, but yeah I’m trying to kill him,” the girl shifted her weight to her left hip as she crossed her arms. “The reason why I came here in the first place was to break into this asshole’s…” she nodded to Zim, “...house and take all the magic energy and put it into some sort of storage unit.”

Zim glared at the girl as she insulted him, “And what exactly, is the storage unit, human earthworm?” 

“You see, I didn’t get that far cause I got distracted with Dib’s house also radiating magic energy.” She walked toward the fallen gadgets and picked them up. “And then, you two decided to be difficult and now I’m in a basement making shitty deals.” The strange magician placed them back on the shelf as she spoke to the two morons.

Dib furrowed his brows as he watched the girl clean up the clutter, “Uh...thanks?” He wasn’t sure what to say.

The girl waved him off, “I just don’t like mess.” She turned to face the boys, “Now are you going to give me the book, or do I need to slowly torture you?”

Zim perked up, “Ooooh, torture! Do the torture!”

“What?! No!” Dib yelled out, a horrified expression painted on his face.

The magician rolled her eyes, “I was joking...mostly.” 

“How do I know you just won’t run off right when I give you my dad’s calculations?”

“Look, once you make a deal with me, it’s a deal. I don’t go back on my word. You just have to trust me on this one,” her tone was serious, and looked directly into Dib’s eyes.

Dib chewed at his bottom lip, he still wasn’t sure if he could trust her. “I’ll give you the book, but only if you teach me a spell first.”

The girl looked up at the ceiling and started to sigh very loudly, which morphed into an elongated zombified groan. Zim looked at her inquisitively, “Dib-monkey, why is she making that weird noise?” Dib shrugged, still staring at the strange girl.

She suddenly stopped, focusing back on the big-headed boy, “I was debating if I should just murder you instead but that would just cause more problems for me and attract his attention.”

“I think you should still murder him, it would make my life much easier,” Zim grinned as he thought of his enemy being eaten by a mutated squid. With the Dib-thing gone, he could finally conquer this pathetic dirtball and the Tallest would finally give him the recognition he deserves. Then he could move onto another lesser planet and conquer that one! And then the next one! And the next after that! His grin was becoming more sinister, he started to chuckle as he thought of Earth branded by the Irken insignia, his giggle becoming a full-on evil laugh as he imagined conquering all the small insignificant planets in this putrid galaxy. He gasped for air in between laughs, tears starting to form in the corner of his eyes.

Dib glared at the Irken who was staring into space with a stupid smile on his face, probably imagining his horrible death. He turned back to the girl, “Just one spell! That’s all I’m asking! Then I’ll give you the book, I promise!”

The girl sighed, “Fine. One spell. What do you want to learn first?”

“I was thinking of the fire one you mentioned. I could use it against Zim!” The two humans turned to Zim as they heard him snicker.

“Sure, that’s easy enough. Tomorrow. 6 AM.”

“6 AM?! Why so early?”

“Because--” she was cut off by Zim’s roaring laughter, her face contorted into a mixture of concern and confusion. She kept watching as he cackled, the whole neighborhood could probably hear him. “Does he...always laugh like that?”

Dib had an uninterested stare as he watched Zim, “Yeah, pretty much.”

Sudden loud and angry footsteps came down to the basement, it was the purple-haired girl. “I warned you, Dib. You just couldn’t shut your mouth, could you?!” She rolled up her sleeves, ready to pounce on her brother.

“But, it’s not even me! It’s Zim! Look at him!” Dib was pointing at Zim, who was still laughing and completely unaware of the situation. 

“He’s _your_ friend. So I’m gonna beat you up until he stops laughing!” Gaz threw a punch at her older brother, hitting his stomach. Dib begged for mercy, but Gaz didn’t show any as she kept hitting him.

The magician rubbed her face with her hands as she heard the desperate cries from Dib and the echoing laughter of Zim. She was mentally exhausted, these two were going to give her a brain aneurysm long before she ever has the chance to kill Ander. Zim looked like he was finally calming down from his laughing fit until he saw Dib getting beat up by his scary sister. That brought on a new wave of agonizing laughter. The girl sighed, turning away from the scene, stepping over the knocked down door, and went back up the stairs. She looked outside, the window still very much broken by Zim’s antics. She carefully shuffled over to the broken pieces of glass, her hands hovered over the sharp shards, her fingers came together as she whispered in Latin. Every piece of glass shot toward the window frame, mending together. The jagged edges glowed as the pane became unified once more. Satisfied with her work, she headed toward the exit and walked out, gently closing the door.

Zim was clutching his side, he hadn’t laughed like that in quite a while. Dib-thing’s terrifying sister finally stopped hurting the big-headed human when he stopped laughing. 

“Now, stay quiet!” Gaz shouted at Dib as he curled around the book the other human girl was interested in. Dib groaned on the floor, his eye already swelling and his lip bleeding. 

Zim smirked at his injuries, serves him right for throwing contaminated water onto him. He looked around the room. _WAIT! Something is missing. What was it?_ He turned to the left, his foot gently nudged against his laser gun. Ah, yes! His gun. Zim picked up his weapon and stored it in his PAK. _WAIT A MINUTE, THE MAGIC GIRL IS GONE!_ Zim quickly searched the room again and ran out of Dib-worm’s nasty basement. He narrowed his eyes at the window in the kitchen, he was sure he broke through that. Zim walked around the table and observed the window, it was completely fixed. He smashed through it again.

The girl stopped mid-step when she heard a crash behind her, it sounded like a window being broken. She turned around to see the loud alien boy brushing off the broken glass for the second time today. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” She stomped toward the brainless alien. “I _just_ fixed that and you break it again? What is wrong with you?!” She shouted in Zim’s face.

“Don’t yell at me, you insolent fool!” Zim shouted back, glaring at the girl.

The magician scowled and turned back around, letting out a voice of frustration as she marched away from the annoying green boy.

“Hey! Don’t walk away from _me_! THE GREAT ZIM!” He shook his fist at the magician. She waved her hand at him without looking back at him, brushing him off. Zim growled and was about to follow her until someone tackled him.

Dib flinched as he got up from the floor, everything hurt, especially his eye. He looked around the empty basement and sighed, he tucked the notebook into his jacket pocket as he trudged up the stairs to the kitchen until he heard something that sounded like glass breaking. He ran up the rest of the steps to see Zim outside his house being yelled at by the witch. Dib carefully opened the broken window, not wanting to hurt himself further, and tackled Zim to the ground before he could leave.

“GET OFF ME! YOU STINK OF HUMAN!” Zim flailed his arms at the Dib-thing.

“STOP BREAKING MY STUFF ZIM!” The two tumbled on the ground as they both tried to get the upper hand. 

“ _YOU_ STOP BEING SO UGLY!” 

“ _YOU’RE_ THE ONE WITH NO NOSE OR EARS!”

The magician watched from afar with amusement, those two are going to be a handful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of chapter 6! Chapter 7 will be next week! Thank you all for reading, leaving kudos, and bookmarking my story!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome to chapter seven! A bit of a warning about the story itself, there's a lot of dark themes and violence. It seems light-hearted now, but it gets way more serious towards later chapters. I'll always warn you guys in the notes before the story so please read them before continuing. That's all! Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Dib has been waiting for the mysterious girl for over two hours. He kept pacing in his living room, he wasn’t sure where to meet her or how to find her. He didn’t even know her freakin’ name! The digital clock read 8:55 AM. Great, now she’s three hours late. Dib groaned and flopped on his couch, his eye was still bothering him and the new bruises he got from fighting Zim yesterday didn’t help either. He started to give up until he heard a knock at the door, he jumped up to answer, wincing from the pain. 

“You’re three hours late!” Dib yelled at the girl who didn’t seem to care.

The girl yawned, “Oh yeah, I was joking about the 6 AM part. I was going to say 9 but your green boyfriend started laughing.”

Dib looked at her, absolutely horrified, “HE IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND!” He shivered in disgust.

The girl smirked and stepped off the front porch, “Well, c’mon. Let’s go teach you some magic tricks.”

“Wait, we’re not doing it here?” Dib closed the door behind him and started following her.

“Sure, if you want to set your whole house on fire.” She continued to walk down the street and around a corner.

Dib looked back at his house, he definitely didn’t need more damages in addition to the ones Zim caused, “Yeah, okay. Good point.” He followed her to the park he would go to when he was a child, the park was full today considering it was the weekend. “Shouldn’t we go somewhere that’s more secluded?”

“Don’t worry about that, I already took care of it,” she kept walking through the park until she reached the chain-link fence with a door opening to a bike path that went around town. The two walked down the concrete steps and up the bike trail, there was a wooded area to their left side. The girl suddenly stopped and turned around. Dib looked at her, confused on why she came to a halt. “Zim, if you’re going to keep following us, could you do a better job?”

“What?” Dib searched around for his enemy until he heard him.

“HOW DO YOU KEEP DOING THAT?! TELL ME!” Zim popped out of the bushes near Dib. He was wearing a brown trenchcoat, a dirty pink hat with a blue flower in the center, and a white beard.

The girl snorted at Zim’s disguise, “What the hell is that outfit?”

“DON’T MOCK ME!” he pointed at the human girl in anger.

The skilled magician rolled her eyes and turned to the woods, she stepped up on the cobblestone fence that was barely a foot tall and walked right in. Dib was about to follow her until Zim pushed him out of the way and went in next.

“Hey!” Dib shouted. _Stupid Zim and his stupid alien-ness and his stupid disguise and his stupid..._ his thoughts trailed off as he followed the stranger and his enemy through the woods. He stopped grumbling when he saw an open field appear to him, his eyes widened at the size, “But...how?”

“I just cleared out the trees with magic, no big deal. I put up wards all around here, no one can see or hear us.” The girl rolled up the sleeves of her jacket, getting ready to teach someone who knew nothing about magic a simple fire spell. It couldn’t be that hard right? “Alright, let’s get started.”

Dib nervously looked at Zim to his right, he was preoccupied, scanning everything with his weird Irken technology. Probably trying to figure out how she did this in less than a day. His head shot toward the magician when she shouted out his name. “Sorry, what?”

“I asked, do you know any Latin?” the girl crossed her arms and sighed when he shook his head. 

Zim couldn’t understand what was happening. He had scanned the same area over and over again, but the results would be different each time. The first time he scanned it, it said it was a normal functioning Earth wood. The second time he scanned it, question marks formed, and then it would glitch out and say it’s traces of dark matter. Zim scanned the area again, more question marks. He frowned and stared up at the sky, another scan: more question marks. Zim crouched down near a shadowed area and carefully looked at the ground, everything seemed normal. Nothing was out of the ordinary. He narrowed his eyes as he studied the girl who was teaching the Dib-stink magic. 

“Before we start, you have any questions?” the girl leaned on her right hip.

“Yes! Since magic is real, does that mean mythical creatures exist too? Like unicorns? Fairies? Griffins?” Dib looked at her with excitement.

The magician shrugged, “I’ve heard stories but I haven’t seen them. They’re in different realms, if you’re trying to find them here, you’ll be severely disappointed.”

Dib took out a notepad and pen, writing down her words, “So there are different realms?”

“An infinite amount.”

“Y’know, I’ve been to the nightmare realm!” 

The girl furrowed her brows at the animated boy, “Why the hell would you go there? Wait a minute, how did you even get there?”

“The Dib-human decided to experiment on his GIANT head and made a portal to that horrible dimension!” Zim suddenly chimed in.

“That’s not what happened!” Dib shouted at the alien.

“Yes, it is! We almost got stuck there because of you! Even for you, that was a stupid plan!”

“It wasn’t my plan to get stuck there! I just wanted to see alternate realities!”

“Okay, you two. That’s enough,” the magician stepped in between the boys, who were glaring at each other. “If there are no more questions--”

“Wait! Do I get a wand? Or a staff?” Dib turned his attention to the girl, “How does magic work? Like where does it come from? Have you always had magic?”

The magician opened her mouth to speak, only to be cut off by the large-headed boy.

“How did you find out that you were a witch? Sorry, a magician? Does your family know you have magic? Where are you from? How did you know to come here?”

The female watched Dib ramble off questions until her patience wore thin, “Oh my god. Dib, if you ask one more question I’m going to personally find a unicorn for you, let you bond with it, name it, become your best friend, until I saw off its horn and stab you in the eye with said horn.”

Dib instantly stopped, his eyes widened with fear. “Which...eye?” _WHY did I ask that?_

 _Why did he ask that?_ She gave the boy a questioning expression, “The right eye.”

“Okay, I’ll shut up.”

Zim snickered at his enemy, the human girl with magic may be annoying but her threats were amusing.

“Now if you’re done rambling, I would like to get started,” she walked further into the field, standing in the center. “And before you ask, no you will not get a wand or a staff. They’re useless.”

“But wouldn’t it help control magic or help me somehow?” Dib walked closer to the girl.

“Look, magic is nothing like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. You’re not born with a gift, anyone can learn magic.”

“Then how did you learn?” 

“I was born into a family that practiced magic for years, I had no choice but to learn and become the best.”

“So...how do I start?” Dib looked completely lost, what was he supposed to do? Just will magic and it’ll come to him?

“Have you ever meditated before?”

“Not...really…” He scratched the back of his head, slightly embarrassed.

“Well, you’re going to start now. Magic is focusing your energy to your hands, a lot of spells will involve moving your fingers into extremely uncomfortable positions and knowing the right words to cast them. The older the language, the better. Hence, the Latin.” As she talked to the curious boy, she moved her flexible fingers into different positions, “Opsuro.”

The whole field went dark like it was night time, Dib couldn’t see anything in front of him. Zim’s eyes instantly adjusted to the darkness, he turned to look at the human girl who stood there with her fingers jumbled together. He scanned the area quickly, more dark matter. When she released her hands, the spell diffused and it became day time once more. Dib shielded his eyes as light invaded his eyes.

“The ignis spell is much less complicated. You just need to concentrate your energy to your hands and shout out the spell.”

“That’s...it?”

“Yup. Easier said than done, but if a six year old can master that spell then you can too.” The magician walked over to the side and sat down under a tree. “Go ahead.”

Dib awkwardly stood there, not exactly sure what to do. He slowly put up his hand and looked at the girl for confirmation. She just sat there with an emotionless face, “Ignis?”

Nothing happened. 

“You need to be more confident, don’t hesitate,” she crossed her legs. “Again.”

Dib took a deep breath, trying to gather his energy to his right hand, and shouted at the Latin word again. Still nothing.

“Again.”

Zim lost interest after the first time Dib failed. He focused on his readings he gathered the last couple of minutes. Whatever spell the girl conjured up was more concentrated, the dark matter was more compact and held together during her little trick. Zim scanned the same area again, question marks...dark matter. Way less concentrated. He hummed as he wrote down his findings. 

\---

The girl checked the time on her phone, 8:47 PM. They’ve been here for almost twelve hours and Dib still couldn’t get a single flame out. He was on the ground, moaning from exhaustion. He didn’t eat all day and was running on fumes at this point. The female magician tossed an energy bar at Dib’s head.

“Ow!” he rubbed his forehead where the sugary oat block bounced off.

“Eat that and go home. We’re done for today,” the girl rolled her sleeves down and smoothed out some of the wrinkles. 

“But I didn’t even make a fireball! What should I do?” Dib scrambled to get off the floor as the magician walked over to him.

“Just keep practicing and remember what I said. You have to feel the magic go through your body, focus your energy to your hands,” she started walking toward the two trees they entered earlier in the day. “Oh, and stop thinking so much. Relax, would you?” She was about to leave until Dib stopped her.

“Can I at least get your name?”

The girl gave an amused smirk, “Sure! If you master that spell.” Dib sighed in defeat as she looked over at the alien who’s been surprisingly quiet all day. He’s been madly scribbling on a red tablet while scanning the whole area for hours. “Bye, Zim! I’m leaving!”

Zim waved his hand off while still focused on his tablet, not really listening, “Yeah, whatever!”

Dib glared at his enemy, why was he even here anyway? It’s not like he was learning magic, and what is he scribbling about? He wanted to go up to him and demand what he was planning but the teenager was too tired to even take a step toward the alien scum. The novice warlock picked up the energy bar from the ground and unwrapped it, taking large bites as he realized how hungry he was. He chewed as he watched Zim scan the sky again and wrote more on his tablet. Whatever Zim was planning, he’ll make sure to stop him. But right now? Actual food and a bed were calling to him. Dib made a mental note to actually eat something before trying any magic, he was completely drained even though the only thing he produced was smoke. Maybe his energy drinks would help. 

Dib dragged his feet all the way back home, throwing the wrapper into the trashcan as he entered the kitchen. He opened up the fridge to see a plate of leftovers wrapped with plastic, Gaz must’ve left it for him. Or she made too much and she’ll eat this tomorrow night. _Whatever. I’m too hungry to care._ He placed the plate into the microwave and set it for two minutes. The door to the basement was still in the basement, he needed to fix that before his dad noticed. The window, however, he might have to ask the strange girl to help him. Dib looked at the time left remaining on the microwave and watched his food turn with a blank expression. The book was hidden in his room, secure behind a secret wall and locked in his briefcase. He flipped through it a couple of times, it was strange, he understood all of the crazy calculations his “magician” father wrote down. Dib perked up as he heard the microwave beep, he opened the door and gingerly picked up the plate around the edges. He set down the hot plate on the dining table and grabbed a fork from one of the drawers, he ate by himself while lost in his own thoughts. 

There were more books, he knew that. He saw them in an old box that was stuffed in the back of the garage. Maybe it could help him become a better magician...or maybe that girl could get a use out of them. He didn’t know anything about killing gods but it definitely doesn’t sound easy. The fork loudly scraped at the bottom of the plate, Dib didn’t realize he finished his meal. The horrible noise brought him to reality, he sighed as he picked up his plate and put it in the sink. He’ll wash it tomorrow or something. Dib pushed his glasses up to rub his eyes but hissed from the pain, he forgot about his black eye. _I need to sleep._

At least he wanted to but his body moved on its own and now he was in his garage, sifting through boxes, layering them on top of each other until he saw the box labeled as _past work_. He opened the box to see different leather-bound notebooks all neatly stacked with their spines facing up. Some were labeled with a label maker while others were left alone. One in particular stood out to him that was tagged as _Failure_. Dib grabbed that one first and stuffed it in his back pocket, he grabbed a random one and flipped through it. It was a journal. He couldn’t help but snort. _The great Professor Membrane writing his thoughts and feelings down?_ The Professor’s son opened up to a random page and started reading, most of it was about his new inventions and how he was finally being recognized as a great scientist but a woman’s name kept popping up. A woman named Charlotte. The scientist kept gushing about her: how brilliant she was, independent, pretty, loved tiger lilies, made amazing coffee, the list kept going. Dib smirked, _dad had a crush_. He kept reading until the pages ran out and picked up the next one, Charlotte’s name was mentioned more and more frequently. The two started dating, fell in love, got engaged, but then it stopped. Some of the pages were ripped out and the rest of the book wasn’t filled in. Dib frowned and searched through more books about his father’s love interest, but none of them mentioned her again. _What happened?_ _Could this Charlotte woman be my mom?_ He sighed when he couldn’t find anything else and shoved the box back in the corner, _of course dad can’t give me that answer either._ Dib closed the garage door and walked back into the house, he slowly climbed up the stairs to see Gaz’s room still lit up. He knocked on the door and peeked his head through when he heard a grunt.

“Hey, sorry I’m home so late.”

Gaz was about to scowl at her brother until she realized how tired he looked, “Whatever.” She faced away from him to stare at her computer screen, “Why are you home so late anyway? Trying to get into Zim’s base again?” 

Dib was tempted to tell her the truth but decided against it, she wouldn’t believe him anyway, “Uh, yeah! Y’know, Zim and his dumb plans!”

Gaz swiveled in her chair, she paused her game to observe her older brother. He was lying. “What were you actually doing, Dib?”

“Nothing! Just my normal weird stuff! Hey, I think the Swollen Eyeball Network is calling me! Night Gaz!” He quickly closed the door and headed to his room.

Gaz frowned as she glared at the door, he was hiding something. 

Dib crawled into his bed, sighing as the soft comforters embraced him. He set his glasses onto the night table, instantly closing his eyes as exhaustion finally won. Completely forgetting about the book in his back pocket.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! The next few chapters are very Dib-centric. Also, I don't know how to laboratory works...so...bear with me here.

The nameless magician bit into an apple as she walked toward the new training grounds she had to set up for Dib. She needed to disable the wards before her magic lures out Ander and kills her before she could kill him, she meant to do it last night but producing that large amount of magic to clear out an area took a toll on her. The park was mostly empty today except for a few dog walkers, the girl tossed the apple core into the large metal trash can next to basketball courts and turned a corner to get to the closed-off forest. She was expecting a big open field, with sunlight and birds singing. Instead, she got all kinds of machinery with some sort of logo attached to it and a certain alien welding a giant mechanical arm onto a robot. She noticed GIR stuffing his face with a bucket of chicken off to the side and a small purple moose that was hovering next to Zim with a wrench in its mouth. Her eye twitched as she took in the scene in front of her.

“Zim.”

He didn’t notice her.

“Zim!”

GIR noticed the girl and so did the purple moose thing, but not the deaf alien. The magician scowled and placed her hands in front of her throat as if she was praying, shifting her left hand up.

“ZIM!” He definitely heard her this time, the ground practically shook. 

The green boy took off his welding mask and glared at the human girl, “WHAT?!”

She lowered her voice back to normal, “What the hell are you still doing here?!”

“I’m working on my next evil plan! And since your little field box can’t be seen or heard, I decided to make it useful!” He shouted on top of his brand new Super Mecha 3000 X.

“Don’t you have school?! It’s Monday!” 

Zim waved her off as he climbed down his new invention, “I only go there to get more information on the human Earth monkeys and your weaknesses.”

“Have you ever heard of the internet?” she asked sarcastically.

“Why, yes. Yes, I have,” he said with a grin and placed his hands on his hips like he was proud that he knew what the girl was talking about.

The magician gave Zim a confused glare, “That wasn’t...I was trying to…” she lost her words as she was trying to explain to Zim that it was a rhetorical question. “Nevermind.”

“Hi lady!” GIR screeched at the poor girl and he attached himself to her leg. 

“GIR! Get off the disgusting human!” Zim placed his equipment off to the side and stalked toward his SIR unit. 

“Awww, do I have to?”

“YES!”

“No.”

The alien and the magician responded at the same time. Zim glared at the human girl while she gave him a mocking smile. 

“GIR! I am your master! You must listen to me!” 

The poorly disguised green dog looked at Zim and then up to the pretty magician. The girl shrugged as she stared back, “You can stay on my leg if you want.” GIR cheered and squeezed harder, looking like a koala hugging a eucalyptus tree. 

Zim leered at the strange human, “I don’t like you.”

“Aww, thanks!” She replied back cheerfully and walked off toward his giant robot. Whatever he was building, it had power cables running all over the ground and connected to the back. It was definitely impressive, the thing was at least ten feet tall and was equipped with missiles on its shoulders. “How did you make this so quickly?”

The green alien gave the magic girl a confused stare,  _ why on Irk did she thank me?  _ He ran over and stood in front of her, “That’s none of your concern! Go...do...something else! I need to finish my Super Mecha 3000 X!”

The female snorted at the name, “That’s what you’re calling it?”

“Yes! Now leave!” He got close to her face, trying to intimidate her.

She gave Zim a bored expression, “Sorry. Can’t. I have to take down all the wards I set up, so I actually suggest that you put away your Super Mechanical 300 Z or whatever.”

“IT’S SUPER MECHA 3000 X!”

“Do you always have to be screaming?!”

“Well maybe if you got the name right, I wouldn’t have yelled!”

“You’re still yelling right now, Zim!”

“So are you!”

“That’s because--” she stopped herself and rubbed her face with her hands. “Okay. You know what? I give up. I’ll stop yelling first.”

“HA! VICTORY FOR ZIM!” He shouted at the sky. He suddenly felt a hand cover his mouth.

“Please. Stop. Yelling.”

Zim grabbed the girl’s wrist and moved it away from his face, “Don’t touch me with your filthy human hands.”

The magician jerked her arm to get away from his tight grip, “Fine. But seriously, I need you to clear out this area.”

“Why? This place is perfect! For a pathetic magical human, you did a good job securing the place.”

The girl rolled her eyes at the backhanded compliment, “Gee, thanks.” She walked over to one corner and started undoing her work, “I can’t have these up all the time, every person with magic has their own energy attached to them like a fingerprint or a signature. If I leave them up for too long, He’s going to find me.” She turned around to look at the alien, “And I’m not really ready to fight a god yet.”

“But where am I supposed to store my amazing invention?”

“Don’t you have a house you can roll that off to?” One of the wards fizzled out as she released her hands.

“This thing is huge! Someone would see!”

“Well take it apart then!” The second ward was more complicated, the different angles of magic she set up were going to take longer to dispel. 

“It took all night to set this up, you stupid human!”

The magician sighed, she stopped her hand movements and stared at Zim, “How about I help you put it back together at your house after I’m done?”

“Ha! You? This is Irken technology! You can’t possibly--”

“I’m a magician, moron. I could probably put it back together in five minutes,” she focused on her hands as the second ward fell. “Oh and I suggest you hurry, I only have eight more wards to go through.”

Zim scowled at the girl, she was making this difficult but if the other humans saw his astonishing work with the Irken insignia...he shivered as his imagination wandered off to a cold metal table with Earth scientists and the Dib-thing looming over him with a sharp instrument. 

“GIR! Minimoose! Start disassembling!” Minimoose squeaked, dropping the wrench onto the dirt, and flew over to the new invention that his super cool master made. Their back opened to reveal tools to unscrew and saw off pieces of the machinery. GIR, however, took the more destructive route and slammed his head against the face of the Super Mecha 3000 X. This sent the top of the machine to fly off in a random direction while GIR started giggling like mad. 

“GIR! Why would you do that?!” Zim gestured wildly with his arms in the direction where the head flew off.

“I helped!”

“NO, YOU DIDN’T! NOW GO FIND THE HEAD!”

The SIR unit saluted to Zim, “Yes, sir! Right away!” GIR’s jets activated and flew off in a completely different direction, screaming into the open air.

Zim heard laughter beside him, it was the magician, “What is so funny?!”

“Nothing!” she stopped giggling when she got caught by the space boy and went back to disabling her wards.

Zim narrowed his eyes at the still smiling girl, watching her hands make funny shapes. He barely knew anything about her, he never believed in magic, and yet here was this female who could create flames, fix objects, clear out a piece of land, make invisible soundproof walls, and somehow always knew where he was. It bothered him. He sensed a lot of anger in her, didn’t know what it was about but if she was an Irken, she would’ve made a good Invader. Instead she was just a human girl, out for murder...he could respect that at least. The murder part, not that inferior human part.  _ Ha! Pitiful humans. _

It was incredibly amusing to watch GIR let go of her leg and fly straight into Zim’s stupid Super...Mega? No that’s not right. Whatever. His invention. The whole situation was absolutely hilarious to her, she hasn’t laughed like that in months, possibly years. No wonder Zim hadn’t conquered the Earth yet. Speaking of Zim, he’s been staring at her for the past ten minutes.  _ What the hell is he looking at? _

“May I help you?” she turned to the green boy.

“Huh?”

“You’ve been staring at me for a while there, Zim.”

“NO, I HAVEN’T! YOU LIE!”

_ Oh good, he’s yelling again. How does he not lose his voice?  _ She completely ignored him and focused on the fourth ward, not wanting to get into another screaming match. At least he finally stopped staring.

\---

She couldn’t believe her eyes. Zim, in his weird old man disguise, was holding a giant pig balloon that was filled with parts of his machinery while Minimoose was disguised as a tiny airplane, following his master as the magician was behind them. No one cared. Either they were used to Zim’s antics or this city is filled with morons.  _ She _ felt out of place walking with these two. 

Zim stopped at his green house, letting go of the pig balloon, and opened the door. The parental units greeted him as usual as he walked into the base.

“Computer! Take the hovering repository to the lab. I need to rebuild my superior mecha there,” He rubbed his eyes as he took off his uncomfortable disguise.

“Ugh. Fine,” the computer groaned.

The confused magician closed the door behind her, stepping toward the right window to watch the pig balloon being lowered into the ground outside and replaced with the fake green grass and a creepy gnome. This was the first time being in Zim’s house, she looked at the ceiling to see tons of metal tubing hanging above her, there was a giant flat-screen TV mounted on the wall, a painting of a green monkey was above his couch, the wallpaper was surprisingly cute with UFOs all over them, there were a lot of odd quirks about the interior. 

“Your house is weird,” she said as she stared at the monkey painting.

Zim turned around, his eyes went wide as he realized the human girl was in his base, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?!”

“You invited me.”

“NO, I DIDN’T! GET OUT!”

“Zim, how am I supposed to help you rebuild your...super...mecha...thing, if I can’t be inside your house?” She stared at the loud alien in front of her. Another first for her: seeing Zim fully without his disguise, she wasn’t expecting brilliant ruby red eyes.

“That’s not the point! I didn’t invite you in!” He was scrambling to put his disguise back on.

“Oh calm down, I already know you’re an alien,” she walked over and sat on his couch.

“Don’t sit there! You’ll get your human germs all over it!”

“Oh, so now you’re afraid of germs?” she raised her eyebrow at him.

“I AM AFRAID OF NOTHING!”

She flinched as Zim screamed at her, “Could you  _ please _ lower your voice?”

“Son? Is this your new girlfriend?” the robo-dad asked, rolling over to Zim.

“Oh, I remember you! You’re the one with the pretty hair!” The tutu-wearing robot tried to grab the magician’s hair again.

The girl smacks the gloved hand away from her, shaking it in pain as the metal hit her fist, “Okay. First of all, I’m not his girlfriend. Second of all, get away from me!” She stood up from the couch as the robot parents loomed over her and walked over to Zim. 

“Awww, sweetie! Look at those two! Aren’t they cute?” The robo-mom smiled at the fuming Irken and the confused human.

“They sure are! Remind me of the time we met, sweetheart!” The male robot wrapped his metal claw around his wife.

“What’s wrong with them?” the concerned girl leaned toward Zim, whispering to him as she kept staring at the pair of robots.

“Enough of this! Are you two broken?! Computer! Disassemble them, immediately!” 

“Alright, alright. Don’t get your panties in a twist,” the computer sassed back.

The girl laughed at the computer’s response as two giant metal claws descended from the ceiling, keeping them in place as other tools came up from the floor, taking them apart and lowering them into the storage unit below.

Zim scowled at the girl next to him, “I blame you for this.”

“What’d I do?!” she crossed her arms as she glared back.

“They were perfectly fine until you got here! I bet your magic thingy is the reason for this!” He pointed at her accusingly as he got closer.

“I seriously doubt that, considering I didn’t even do anything!” She pointed back at him. The two glared at each other, they continued to stare in silence until Zim turned his heel and marched into the kitchen, the girl scoffed as she followed and looked around the room, “Why...do you have a toilet in your kitchen?”

“It’s a normal toilet!”

“Yeah...that shouldn’t be in the kitchen.”

“Well, where else is it supposed to go?!”

“The bathroom, you freakin’ weirdo!” She watched in disgust as Zim stepped inside of it and flushed himself down. 

“What?” She looked down at the ceramic bowl, Zim was gone.  _ Where the hell…?  _ She scanned the area around her, realizing Minimoose was still there watching her. “Uh...Minimoose, right?”

“Nyah!”

“I’m going to take that as a yes. Could you take me to where Zim went? I’d rather not flush myself down a toilet.”

Minimoose squeaked in response and the floor beneath her suddenly went down. The girl quickly kneeled, not wanting to fall off the platform that didn’t have any railings, and looked around in amazement as she descended into a vast open room. She could see Zim standing near the pig balloon in perfect posture as it empties its contents onto the floor. The platform slowed as it reached the bottom, the magician slowly stood up and walked over to the annoyed Irken. 

“Do you always use the toilet to flush yourself down here or was that just a special trick for me?”

Zim’s antennae stood straight up as he heard the magic-wielding girl’s voice and quickly turned around, “HOW DID YOU GET DOWN HERE?!”

“YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE ME DEAF!” she yelled back while covering her ears. “Minimoose showed me.”

“No! Bad Minimoose! She is not allowed here!” Zim glared at his only obedient minion. Minimoose gave a sad squeak and tilted his body down.

“Hey, don’t yell at the poor thing!” She gave Minimoose a pat on the head while Zim gave her a judgemental stare. “What? They’re cute!” The floating moose gave her a happy squeak in response.

“Don’t thank her!” Zim spat out.

“Aw, you’re welcome,” she gave a smug smile to the alien, knowing it would piss him off. She was correct, it indeed pissed him off. He was going to yell at her again until lights started to flash.

“Intruder alert!” The computer shouted out.

“Oh, now you say there’s an intruder! She’s right in front of me!”

“No, not her! It’s the Dib-human. He rang the doorbell.”

“Really? You get blaring alerts for a doorbell ringing?” The girl gave Zim an unimpressed stare.

Just as he was about to respond, the computer cut him off, “Now he’s in the base.”

“What?! Why didn’t you stop him?!”

“Why do I have to do everything?” the computer whined.

Zim gave out a frustrated cry as he walked past the annoying girl and back into the elevator. 

“C’mon Minimoose. Let's go see what Tweedledee and Tweedledumbass are up to,” she said as she walked to the platform. The little moose squeaked as it followed her and both of them came back up to the kitchen to see the two boys arguing back and forth. “Did I miss something?”

The two enemies stopped shouting at each other to turn to the bored magician.

“AH, HA! I KNEW SHE WAS HERE!” Dib shouted.

“WHY WOULD YOU COME BACK UP HERE?!” The exasperated alien shrieked at the slowly-going-deaf girl. 

“What? You want me down at your lab? Alone?” She gave the tall boy a pompous smile.

Zim opened his mouth to say yes but slowly closed it as he realized his mistake. He turned to the Dib-human and laced his hands in front of him, “Okay, Dib-stink. You can have this mystical woman, she is all yours. Now both of you leave my base.”

Dib pumped his fist in victory, “Yes! C’mon, uh...I still don’t know your name…”

The girl leaned against Zim’s dining table and placed her hand on her extended hip, “Yeah and you probably never will. Now, are you going to tell me why you were looking for me?”

“Yes! You should tell her! Outside! Not in my base!” The two humans ignored him.

“I want to practice more magic! And since you’re my teacher now…” he trailed off, hoping the incredibly sarcastic magician would agree with him for once.

The girl hummed as she looked at Dib up and down. He looked like a mess: still had major bags under his eyes, he was slouching, his hair was all over the place. There was no way this poor guy could conjure up the ignis spell without fainting right after. She looked back up at Dib, “No.”

“What?! Why not?” Dib gave her a pleading look.

“You don’t have enough energy to produce that much magic. You’ll probably faint.”

Zim laughed at the Dib’s stupid pouting face, “Pathetic humans!”

“What if I drink some energy drinks? Would that help?”

“Sure, if you drink maybe ten in a row and not die from a heart attack.”

Dib groaned and fell back on the couch. He ignored Zim’s yells to get off his furniture and stared up at the ceiling. He just wanted to learn magic, that’s all he could think about while he was at school. His thoughts were so focused on the spell that he didn’t even notice Zim wasn’t in his classes. Well, that’s not true, he noticed Zim wasn’t there but he sensed that the girl would be with him. Definitely made it easier to find her, whoever she was.

“Look, just get some rest first and then we’ll continue. I had to take down all the wards anyway. When I think you’re ready, I’ll set them back up and we can keep going with your training. Sound good?” 

While Dib was having his pity party, the girl walked over to the couch and sat next to him. Also ignoring Zim’s screaming of human germs and needing to burn that couch after those two leave. The novice warlock sighed and mumbled a consensus, finally getting up to run home. He wanted to read more of his father’s books anyway. 

The girl got up with him, suddenly realizing she spent most of her day with a loud, abrasive, egocentric alien. Her original plan was to take down her wards and go grocery shopping with the leftover money she stole from an ATM three cities ago.  _ I guess I’ll go do it now. _

“Okay, Zim. I’ll leave you alone,” she walked toward the front door with Dib.

“Finally!” Zim watched the two shuffle out the door until he remembered his Super Mecha 3000 X was still in pieces, on the floor, in his lab. “HEY! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO FIX MY ROBOT!”

The experienced magician waved him off, “I’ll fix it tomorrow! Besides, GIR still didn’t come back with the head. Bye Zim!” She shut the door on her way out.

The tall Irken scowled at the door, that human girl is becoming more of a nuisance. 

Suddenly, the door opened back up with the said irritating girl, poking her head in. 

“By the way, you look better without the stupid disguise,” and closed the door again. Actually leaving this time. Zim stood in the middle of his living room, with a confused look on his face.  _ Stupid female human. _

\---

Dib sat on his garage floor, trying to read through more of the worn-down journals. Most of them were old calculations his father improved on, but what he really wanted to know more about was Charlotte. What happened to her? Did she break up with his workaholic father? He flipped to the last few pages of the book he was on, there were scribbles of a mad scientist about human cloning.  _ Would it work? Was it possible? _ Those two questions were written at an odd angle in the corner of the page. It looked like his father was onto something, maybe he successfully cloned someone or something. Dib tossed the book back into the box and sealed it back up. There was still one more book to shuffle through, and that one was on his desk. He tossed it over to the table before he went to school; if he’s going to read about his father’s failures, he’s going to give it his full attention.

Well, that was his plan until he walked through the side door and his father was standing there with his arms crossed, waiting for Dib to come back inside.

“Son, would you like to explain to me why the door to my home lab is completely off its hinges and the kitchen window seems to be broken?”

“Uh, hey! Dad! You’re home! How was work?” Dib nervously fidgeted with the sleeves of his jacket, avoiding his questions entirely.

Professor Membrane didn’t answer, he kept staring at his child as Dib got more and more anxious with every second that passed.

“It wasn’t my fault! Zim and this girl--”

“No excuses! I understand if you wanted to spend some time with your friends but destroying the house is out of the question!” The eccentric father placed his hands on his hips as he scolded the teenager. “As punishment, you are grounded for two weeks.”

“Two weeks?! But dad--!”

“No buts! I want you home after school with Gaz. You can tell your green foreign friend--”

“He’s not my friend! He’s an alien!” Dib wanted to pull on his hair. He always did this! Whenever he tried to expose Zim to his father, he would brush it off and try to get Dib into “real science.” No one ever believed him...Gaz believed him but she never took it seriously...and now that magician girl knows but she doesn’t care and is planning on helping Zim. He was getting tired of people telling him that he’s crazy, that he’s in the wrong, that he needed to stop being so weird. He’s tired. 

“Son, aliens--”

“Don’t exist. I know. I get it,” he sounded defeated. Dib dragged his feet as he walked around his father to go to his bedroom. 

The Professor frowned as he watched Dib trudge up the stairs. He didn’t mean to upset the boy, but he needed to grow up. Playing aliens with his friends was fine back in elementary school, but Dib was in high school now. The overworked father sighed as he turned to the basement entrance, he didn’t know how the door got knocked down to his lab but at least he can easily fix that. The window, however, he would have to call someone to install a new one.

Dib gently closed his bedroom door and sat in his desk chair, the small journal was still there mocking him. Having the word failure on the side and front cover didn’t sit well with him, he grabbed the book and shoved it in his drawers. Dib got up from his chair and fell back on his bed, his feet still on the ground while he looked at his hands. He stretched them in front of him, his palms facing the ceiling.

“Ignis,” he whispered. Nothing happened. Not even smoke this time. He wasn’t surprised, it’s not like he was trying.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just got home from work and almost forgot to post this chapter. Again I don't know how a science lab or research facility works so just accept what's going on, okay? Thank you. xD

Weeks have passed since Dib attempted to learn the ignis spell, the punishment from his father definitely set him back. He tried practicing on his own but he couldn’t put the effort in, he didn’t even try bothering Zim the last few weeks. Everyone noticed the difference, even the mysterious magician. Without his random outbursts about the paranormal, people actually left him alone...well...except for Zim. He kept trying to bait Dib back into chasing him down the halls and destroying his evil plan. Now he was in the middle of the field, half-heartedly practicing magic.

“Oh c’mon! What the fuck was that?!” The girl was getting pissed, it’s been over a month and she’s still in this weird city, teaching a boy who wasn’t even trying anymore. She was expecting delays, she was planning on staying three months tops but at this rate, it’ll be three years. Dib still won’t give her the book, which was stupid since he has given up at this point, and the only time she was using magic was to set up the wards on the field. Even the house she was squatting at didn’t have protection spells anymore. Not because she felt safe in this socially backward neighborhood, but the more spells that linger, the greater the chance she becomes a target. She scowled as she watched Dib make another mistake on the transformation spell. They gave up on the fireball, even though that was easier, and made Dib do a harder spell with his hands. He didn’t fight with her though, he just shrugged and said fine. Another thing to be annoyed by: nothing bothered the big-headed boy, she could probably turn herself into Zim, start screaming at him and he would just walk away. She didn’t mind Dib’s determination, she admired it actually but this nonchalant asshole in front of her made her angry. And she came to this city already angry. How much more can her body take until it’s just pure rage?

“Dib. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?” The skilled magician asked as she slowly released the last ward, turning toward the angsty teenager.

“Nothing! I’m just in a weird mood is all,” he kicked a pebble around with his right foot until it veered to the left, tumbling into a bush. 

“For four weeks?” she raised her right eyebrow at him and crossed her arms.

Dib sighed as he stepped out of the field and onto the bike path, he shoved his hands in his pockets as he ignored the girl behind him. They walked in silence until they reached the Membrane’s residence and said their goodbyes. The magician watched as Dib closed his front door, she turned around and reached the opposite side of the street.

She leaned against the tree in someone’s lawn, “You worried about him too, huh?”

Zim popped up from the bush he was hiding in, “How do you keep doing that?!”

The female chuckled and waved her fingers next to her face, “Magic!”

Zim rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, “For your  _ information _ , I’m not worried about Dib-stink! He’s planning something...I know it!”

“Uh-huh or he’s going through something emotionally and you’re worried about him because he’s your only friend.”

“HE IS NOT MY FRIEND! IRKENS DO NOT HAVE FRIENDS!”

“Hey! Who’s out there?!” A man shouted through his window, noticing a couple on his lawn. “You two better not be doing anything weird over there!”

“The hell does he mean by weird?” The magician looked back at the man until Zim grabbed her wrist and dragged her away from the scene. She was practically jogging to keep up with Zim’s long strides, the tight grip he had was starting to hurt. “Zim! Slow down!”

The alien let her go, stopping at the house she’s been living in. He finally figured out where she was running off to at the end of the day when the magician stopped the looping spell a couple of weeks ago. Zim didn’t follow her, he knew she would find him instantly, instead he sent out a nano-bug to stalk her. She can still remember the eight hour gloating session he decided to force upon her while she was down at his labs, fixing his ultra robot for the tenth time at an agonizing pace. Was it her fault that she keeps breaking it? Yes, but in her defense, it’s incredibly amusing to see him angry. And if he was going to torture her, she was going to torture him.

“I know the Dib-thing told you about his plans! Tell me! You’re supposed to help me take over this disgusting planet and all you’ve done is annoy me!” Zim practically growled at her.

“Oh, calm down! Dib hasn’t told me anything,” she rubbed her left wrist as she spoke to the Irken.

“YOU’RE--” Before he could finish the human girl slapped her hand across his mouth.

“No. I’m not lying. And stop screaming before someone realizes I live here,” she gave him an annoyed glare.

Zim roughly yanked her hand away from his mouth, “And I told you to stop touching me!”

“Says the guy who’s holding my hand.”

“Huh?” He turned his head to his hand, tightly grasping the magician. Zim quickly let go and wiped his palm down his jacket, trying to get all the filthy germs the witch probably has. His PAK took out a disinfectant spray and dispensed half the can onto his left hand.

“Zim, how long have you been here?”

He scowled as he focused on the spray, “Too long.”

“Well I’m sure you’re fine to germs, you would’ve been dead by now if it was actually toxic to you.”

“You don’t know that! Maybe it’s slowly eating away at my squeedlyspooch or my brain! What if it infects my PAK?!” He was staring at her now, with a crazed look in his eyes.

“Or maybe you’re overreacting like usual,” the girl unlocked her front door with her thumb and stood under the frame. “Good night, Zim.”

“Wait! What are you planning?” He narrowed his eyes at the girl while he held the door open with his arm.

“Me? I’m not planning anything,” she gave him an innocent smile.

“You have that look in your eyes, I know you’re scheming something.”

The cunning magician’s smile widened and pinched the space boy’s cheek, “Aww, you know me so well.” She quickly let go as Zim freaked out and slammed the door shut, sealing it from her end.

“Hey!” Zim pounded at the entrance, screaming to be let in. He was causing a whole scene outside her house.

The girl stood by her bedroom window, watching the green boy shouting at the open air. She sighed as her neighbors opened their doors to see what was going on.  _ I need to move. _

\---

Dib stared at the ceiling of his bedroom, he really didn’t know what was wrong with him. He was so excited to learn magic, only because it was another way to stop the space boy from taking over Earth, but ever since the conversation with his father, everything just felt meaningless. Why should he stop Zim from taking over the world? The closest Zim has ever been was the Florpus incident and the great  _ Professor Membrane _ thought it was a weird fever dream. Everybody else just shrugged it off! Dib sat up from his bed and messed with his hair. Now he was getting frustrated. He turned his head to the drawer that still held the journal, he didn’t even attempt to look through it. He didn’t know why he was so afraid to read it but maybe it’ll make him feel better somehow. Maybe it will give him some hope that his father wasn’t a dismissive ass.  _ Ha, yeah right.  _ The teenager got up from his soft bed and sat down at his desk chair, he opened the drawer and picked up the old notebook. The first page was filled with hurried text, the handwriting didn’t follow the lines and there were creases all over them like someone was desperately clawing at them. Dib furrowed his brows as he read through the distressed writing, some of the ink was smudged and bled through.

_ Feb. 8, 1995 _

_ My cloning project has been successful. I brought back a Dodo bird within two months of extraction, if I could bring back an extinct bird then I can bring back anything. Everything I have studied, made, and contributed to the field of science has led me to this. I managed to take my unborn son’s DNA, I can create him again in the nourishing chambers Charlotte designed years ago. My beautiful Charlotte, I can make this right again. We can have our son and be a normal family. Once you wake up, you will never know that we lost our baby, our Dib. _

“What?” Dib whispered as he saw his name written in black ink.  _ Their _ Dib?

There was a knock at the door, he put down the book and scrambled to hide it under random homework assignments that cluttered his desk. 

“Come in!”

Gaz opened the door and raised her eyebrow at her weird brother. “What are you doing?”

Dib was trying to look as normal as possible, he was stretched out like a cat. His right leg extended to his bed and his left arm was propped up on his desk, “Nothing! Just homework! Y’know, normal things for normal Dib!” He gave her a nervous smile.

“Uh-huh...well, dinner is ready.”

“I’m kinda busy here, Gaz. Go ahead and eat without me.”

Gaz crossed her arms against her chest and glared at Dib, “You’ve been acting weirder and weirder for the past few weeks, what’s going on?”

“Nothing! Just busy! With school!”

“We don’t even learn anything there!”

“I’m...busy...with Zim!”

“You haven’t bothered him for a month.”

“I’m...uh…”

“Is it because of that girl who keeps coming by here? Is she your girlfriend or something?”

Dib cringed at the thought of the sarcastic witch being his girlfriend, “God, no!”

“Then what is it?!”

“WHY DO YOU CARE?!” He didn’t mean to scream at her like that, sudden anger washed over him and made him lash out.

The younger sibling scowled at her brother, “Whatever. Just stop moping around and man up. You’re annoying me.” She grabbed the door and slammed it shut.

Dib sighed, he felt guilt eat away at him. He’ll order pizza tomorrow and apologize, but right now he was busy reading about a different Dib. The one that died. The one that wasn’t him.

_ Oct 23, 1995 _

_ I don’t understand! Why isn’t it working? I have done everything right but every time I take my son out of the nourishing chambers, he’s still not breathing! I thought I was taking him out too soon but with my calculations, it should only take nine weeks. Any longer than that and he would start disintegrating. I can’t give up yet, he is my son. I will successfully clone him, I won’t stop until I do.  _

Dib flipped through the pages, most of them were incoherent rambles about what went wrong with the procedures. He was starting to wonder how many Dibs his father made before it finally worked. 

_ March 16, 1996 _

_ I tried everything. I even extracted Charlotte’s DNA and tried to combine it with mine. I took the best parts of both of us and created a superior version of our son but it didn’t work. This took months and I couldn’t successfully clone anything! I’m Professor Membrane, dammit! I should be able to do this without this much difficulty! I failed you, Charlotte. I’m sorry. _

Dib lingered on that page, on his father’s apology. What happened to Charlotte? What happened to the original Dib? How did he die? He flipped to the next page, this entry looked different. The pen his father was writing with was pressed down firmly, anger was spewing off the pages.

_ Nov. 30, 1996 _

_ I never should have trusted that moron! I needed an assistant, a partner to keep my thoughts organized! Instead, that fool told the board of trustees and now I must demonstrate the cloning process! I don’t have time for this. My family is important, not this experiment! _

There was a break in the page, Dib couldn’t help but scoff at the last sentence. 

_ Dec. 1, 1996 _

_ That idiot betrayed me! He didn’t just show them my Dodo project, but my cloning process for my son! He showed them my failures, told the trustees that I need a break, that I was losing my mind. I am not losing anything! I still have one more clone, it’s still alive and doing well. I can still be a father. _

_ He sabotaged it. This clone isn’t Dib. It’s me. That bastard cloned me! His defense was why only have one brilliant Professor Membrane when you can have two. Dib 207 is not a Dib at all, he is a failure. _

Dib dropped the book. The word failure echoed in his mind, he couldn’t be Dib 207...could he? But that would mean he’s not even a Dib, just a copy of his father. Can he even call him father? Tears welled up in his eyes, his whole life is just a lie. What about Gaz? Is she even his sister? Dib couldn’t breathe, he sobbed into his hands as his thoughts swirled out of control. Who was he? He’s nothing like his father...right? Why did he even keep him? Is this why he dismissed Dib all his life? How could he be just an experiment?! Dib’s face contorted with anger as he pushed the book onto the floor and rested his head on his desk, tears still streaming down his face.

_ Dib 207 is not a Dib at all, he is a failure.  _

Those written words echoed in his mind, he could hear his father’s...his _creator’s_ voice over and over.

_ He is a failure. _

\---

Dib hadn’t shown up for his lessons for five days now. The girl paced back and forth in front of the high school, checking her phone. It was almost 3:00 PM,  _ when does this stupid school end? _ She waited another ten minutes, standing with her arms crossed and resting her weight on her left hip in the center of the entrance. The final bell rang, releasing the teenagers from their hell, and flooded the front doors to get out. A lot of them looked at the random girl strangely as she stood there, glaring at the heavy school doors.

Zim walked out to see the witch, he could practically see the anger oozing out of her. He hesitated, was she angry at him or the Dib-thing? Zim thought back to the last few days. What could he have possibly done to make her this irritated? It wasn’t  _ his _ fault that her work was unsatisfactory! She’s the one who keeps sabotaging his brilliant work! The Irken would never admit he was scared, but he was definitely uncomfortable staring at the girl with murder in her eyes. He was so focused on her, he almost didn’t notice Dib passing him. The Dib-stink was acting weird too, he stayed quiet through everything Zim threw at him: insults, food, water, paper, textbooks, everything! Zim even threatened to lobotomize Keef in front of the sad boy, but Dib completely ignored him! He snapped out of it when he heard the angry female shout at the depressed Dib.

“Hey!”

Dib slowly looked up to see the fuming witch, “Not now.” He walked around her, dragging his feet in the process.

The girl grabbed Dib’s arm, “No. We’re discussing this now.”

Dib rolled his eyes, yanked his arm away from her, and continued walking, “Fuck off.”

Zim looked at his enemy, surprised to hear him say those words to the scary girl.

“What did you just say to me?” she practically growled as she followed him. Trying to intimidate the human boy.

Dib kept walking, he didn’t need this today or ever. Zim can go destroy the world and the girl can go help him, he stopped caring about everything after he found out his whole life didn’t matter. He adjusted his backpack as he turned to his left, wanting to get home and be depressed there. That was before someone snagged his backpack and pulled him off to the side.

“What the hell?!” He glared at the pissed off female ahead of him. 

“Yeah, what the hell,” she stated back.

“Can’t you just leave me alone? I don’t want to learn magic anymore, okay?”

“Oh, now you tell me! Could you please tell that to the girl five days ago before you wasted her fucking time?!”

Dib sighed and swung his backpack in front of him, opened up the zipper, and pulled out the book she’s been after for a month now. He waved the book in her face, “Here! Take it! I know you want it!”

She slapped the book away from her, “That’s not the point right now, Dib!”

“Then what?! What do you want from me?!”

“I want you to stop being such a fucking baby and tell me why you haven’t been showing up! I get that you were going through some shit but if you’re going to learn from me, you need to actually try.”

“Why would you care?! Shouldn’t you be happy that I don’t want to learn from you anymore?!”

“Sure, if we weren’t over a month in!”

Zim watched from the side, looking back and forth as the two screamed at each other. He really should’ve brought popcorn with him.

“You want to know why? Because I don’t care anymore! I give up!” Dib threw the book at the girl’s feet.

She didn’t attempt to pick up the journal, “You give up?” She scoffed, “So you’re just going to let Zim conquer this shit planet?”

“Yeah! Yeah, I am!” Dib was getting more and more irritated at the magician, “You just won’t get it! You’ve had magic all your life, I grew up with an absent father that never wanted me in the first place! You would never understand what kind of pain I’m going through!”

“YOU DO NOT GET TO TELL ME WHAT I HAVE BEEN THROUGH!” Her voice resonated throughout the neighborhood, her brown eyes had a ring of blue around her iris, static filled the air around the three of them.

Dib’s eyes widened as he felt the hair on his arms stand, this was the first time he was truly terrified of the girl standing in front of him. His heart was pounding out of his chest, he was frozen in place, he would be dead on the spot if looks could kill.

Zim felt the change in the atmosphere first, he tensed up as he focused on the girl. His antennae shifted under his wig, a surge of power went through his body. It felt like something was touching him all over, he didn’t like that. The alien went on the defense when he felt the static charge, his PAK brought out every weapon that was stored and aimed it at the magician. 

There was silence. No one dared to speak as the distraught girl glared at Dib. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself down, she slowly opened them back up to have the glowing blue completely gone, “Do it.”

“What?” Dib whispered in a terrified tone.

“Do the ignis spell, right now," she demanded.

“Wha--? I can’t do it now! We’re in public! Someone could--”

“Dib! Do the spell! Right now!” She screamed at the frightened boy.

“OKAY!” He turned away from her, he quickly aimed up at the sky and shouted out the Latin word. A huge flame erupted from his palms, forming into a ball, and flew off into the distance. Dib stared into the sky, astonished at himself. His hands tingled with magic, power coursed through his veins, he felt lighter somehow.

“Holy shit!” Dib smiled, still staring at the sky where his fireball went.

“Congratulations. You’re now a magician,” the girl had a slight smirk on her face as she watched Dib ramble to himself. She shook her head as she picked up the book at her feet, brushing off the dirt, and held it in close to her.

Zim walked over to the female magician, putting away his weapons as the situation calmed down. “I don’t get it,” he said as he observed his enemy celebrate.

“What?” She asked while also focused on Dib.

“He couldn’t do that flaming sphere before, so why now?”

“Funny thing about magic…” Zim turned to the girl as she spoke, “...it comes from pain.”

Zim’s attention was on the female now, her expression was stoic as she stared at the Dib-thing. He observed the girl closer, she didn’t look like she was physically hurt, no visible cuts or scratches. He couldn’t help but wonder what she was suffering with.

“Alright, alright. Enough celebrating. We have more work to do if you want to get better at magic.”

“You’ll still teach me?” Dib looked at her in shock.

“We had a deal, remember?” She turned to walk away.

“Hey! Wait! You said you would tell me your name if I mastered that spell!”

She looked back at the two boys, both of them were staring at her, waiting for her response. “Name’s Kaya,” she smirked as she walked away. 

The two watched her leave with the leather-bound book in her hand. Zim suddenly turned to Dib, pointing at him, “Ha! I win, Dib-stink!” 

“What? What are you talking about? We weren’t fighting!”

“I got her name first so I won!” 

“She literally told us at the same time!”

“I HAVE SUPERIOR HEARING SO I WON!”

“THAT’S NOT HOW ANYTHING WORKS!”

“YOU DON’T KNOW THAT!”

Kaya smiled as she heard the two boys argue, “Idiots.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We got a name, folks! Welcome, Kaya to Zim's and Dib's shit show featuring Zim and Dib. I hope you guys are enjoying the story and feel free to leave comments! This is my first story in ten plus years so I know there's a lot of faults in it. See you guys next week for chapter 10 on Wednesday, it's a long one. Well...it's not that long cause Chapter 11 is a whole new level but we'll get there.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm super stressed out...why? Cause I'm moving in like 4 days and I'm currently taking classes at a university and juggling like five things at once. It's horrible and I'm just a ball of stress at the moment...okay well enjoy...

It’s been three days. She’s been here...for THREE DAYS. No matter what he did, she completely ignored him! How is that possible? Did she actually go deaf? Zim paced around his lab, walking around the large metal table, staring at the magician. She wouldn’t leave; he would scream at her, jump on the table, throw her stupid papers around and he wouldn’t get a reaction. She’s been focused on that ridiculous book!

“HEY!” he shouted at her.

No response. She silently flipped to the next page and wrote down something on the stack of copy paper she brought over. Zim scowled at the female, _how dare she ignore ALMIGHTY ZIM!_ He walked over to the opposite side of the table and slammed his fists down so hard that it left indents on the metal. The human looked up, stared at him with a bored expression, and brought the book closer to her face.

“WHY ARE YOU IGNORING ME?!”

Zim felt like he was going insane, nothing would make her leave! He was getting desperate, he needed help...from Dib.

Kaya kept staring at the pages, the sketches for the Perpetual Energy Generator that Dib’s father drew were okay at best. She’s been staring at the same page for the past few hours, trying to figure out how to shrink it down to a portable version but she had no idea what she was doing. Magic? Sure, that came naturally to her. Technology and mathematics? Complete gibberish. She scratched at her scalp, her hair was in a tight bun on top of her head. _Ugh, I need a shower._ Kaya looked up when she heard a loud bang in front of her, Zim was scowling and shouting something at her. He’s been doing this for the past couple of days, it was funny at first but now it was just annoying. She ignored him as usual and buried her face deeper into the journal.

Zim stomped toward the Membrane’s household while he dragged GIR behind him on a leash. _Stupid human. Won’t leave my base. Her filth everywhere. Dumb magic._ His thoughts kept going as he gritted his teeth, stopping in front of his enemy’s house. GIR got up from the ground when he realized his master stopped and started running in circles, tangling the leash around Zim’s legs.

“GIR! Stop that! Now go ring the doorbell to the Dib-stink’s base.”

“Awww, do I have to?” He didn’t understand why his master was so angry, the lady was nice! She let him dance on the table!

“Yes! Now go!” Zim released the strap, expecting his minion to obey him. Instead, the green dog stared at him with wide eyes.

Zim sighed, “I’ll get you tacos.”

“TACOS!” The SIR unit screeched out and instead of ringing the doorbell, he crashed through the entrance, leaving a GIR-shaped hole. 

The Irken waited outside, knowing Dib will open the door and scream at him for breaking another part of his house.

“What the hell?!”

He was right.

The human with a giant head flung the door open with GIR giggling and squirming under his arm, “ZIM!”

“Dib-stink.”

“Why?!”

“I...I need...your...” Zim grimaced as he tried to utter the word for help.

Dib glared at the alien, “My what?”

“Your…” Zim felt his whole body tense up. “NO! I DON’T NEED YOUR HELP! I CAN GET THAT WITCH OUT OF MY BASE WITHOUT YOU!” He pointed at the confused human and stomped off.

“Wait!” Dib shut his door and followed the alien, “Kaya is at your base? Why?”

“I don’t know! But now she won’t leave!” Zim stopped and turned back to his enemy. “Now are you going to help me or not?!”

“You just said you didn’t need my help!”

“I never said--”

“LOOK AT ME! I’M FLYING!”

The two boys stopped and stared at GIR, who was still under Dib’s arm, extending his arms and legs out like Superman. Dib dropped the robot, letting GIR fall flat on his face. The idiotic green dog giggled at the floor and started rolling off into a bush. Zim watched, unimpressed.

“As I was saying, I NEVER SAID THAT!”

“Yes, you did! Like five seconds ago!”

“YOU CAN’T PROVE THAT!”

Dib rubbed his temples, he was starting to understand Kaya’s persistent headaches. “Why do you want my help? Can’t you just throw her out or whatever?”

“Don’t you think I tried that?” Zim scowled at the new magician.

Dib sighed, “Okay, fine. I’ll help. What do you want me to do?”

Zim widened his eyes in surprise, he was expecting more of a fight from his nemesis, “Uh...you distract her while I...I...uh…”

“You don’t have a plan do you?” Dib gave him an annoyed glare.

“I’LL FIGURE IT OUT WHEN WE’RE THERE!” Zim angrily marched toward his base while the Dib-human followed. 

Kaya rubbed her eyes, they were starting to hurt again. She leaned back in the chair she took from Zim while he was working on something; he didn’t find it funny when he fell backward, expecting a seat to catch him. The girl looked through the countless pages of copy paper scattered across the metal table and on the cold tiled floor, she was nowhere near close to her solution. She sighed as she leaned forward, resting her head in her hands. Exhaustion was getting to her, her brain felt heavy in her skull, her eyes burned just by closing them, she has been reading the same passage for the past thirty minutes. If she wanted to kill Ander, she was going to need help. 

“Kaya?”

The expert magician shot her head up and looked up at the boy who called her name, “Dib? How the hell did you get down here?”

The boy pointed to Zim with his thumb, “He brought me here to kick you out.”

Kaya snorted and swiveled her chair to face the two idiots, “Really, Zim? You got _that_ desperate?” She watched with an uninterested expression as Zim gestured wildly at her, most likely screaming considering Dib was covering his ears in pain, “What’d he say? I can’t hear him.”

“You can’t hear him?” Dib looked at her in bewilderment.

“Yeah I put a spell on myself so I couldn’t hear Zim or GIR, it was very peaceful down here for the most part,” she turned to stare at the Irken.

“YOU DID WHAT?! I’VE BEEN TELLING YOU TO GET OUT OF MY BASE FOR THE PAST THREE DAYS! YOU HORRIBLE, DISGUSTING, FILTHY, UGLY, HUMAN!” Zim yelled as he marched toward the girl, getting closer and closer to her face.

Kaya gave Zim an amused smile and pointed to her ears, “What? I can’t hear you.”

The alien screamed in frustration and walked off to the side to get away from the infuriating witch. 

Dib laughed, “Okay, you need to teach me that spell.”

Kaya yawned and stretched her back, “Sure, after I figure out this thing.” She pointed to the journal and leaned on the table again.

The teenager looked over at the girl, he suddenly noticed the horrible bags under her eyes, messy hair, out-of-focus stare, and the disturbing amount of paper littering the floor and desk. 

“Uh, maybe you should get some rest.”

“Sleep is for the weak, Dib.”

“Oh, c’mon! You’re still human, you need sleep.”

“HA! Pitiful humans and their precious sleep! Another point for the superior Irken race!” Zim smirked at the two as he stood on the opposite side of the table.

Kaya looked up at Zim and back at Dib, “What’d he say?” Dib opened his mouth to respond but the girl cut him off, “You know what? I don’t care. I have to figure this out.” She focused back on the book.

“Did you even sleep? Like at all?” Dib asked.

The girl scoffed, “I am not going to lose four hours of my day, sleeping. Waste of time.”

“You only sleep four hours a day?” Dib gave her a worried look.

“Well yeah, any more than that would be stupid.”

Zim and Dib shared a questioning look and then back at the girl.

“Kaya, I insist that you sleep.”

“Dib, I insist you get out of my base.”

“YOUR BASE?!” The Irken screeched out.

“Did that piss Zim off?” Kaya gave Dib a smile as she asked.

Dib pinched the bridge of his nose, “Yeah, yeah it did.”

She turned to Zim, “You are too easy.”

The green boy slammed his hand on the table, “WHAT DOES THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!”

“Kaya! Please! Just go to bed! You could probably figure this out when you actually have some rest!”

“I’m fine!” She shouted at her student as she stood up from the chair and slammed her palms on the table. Not realizing everything around her in a five-foot radius floated off the surface until it all came crashing back down. Kaya sighed and held her face in her hands, “Oh god.”

Dib took a timid step back, “What was that?”

“That happens when I’m losing control of my magic,” she turned to Dib. “Now I’m seeing double, which means I’m going to fai--” Kaya didn’t finish her sentence as she collapsed into Dib’s arms.

The teenager scrambled to catch the young magician, struggling to keep her upright. He looked over at Zim, “What should I do?!”

“Get her out of my base!”

“Where am I supposed to leave her? Outside?!”

“Better than here!” Zim started collecting all the loose paper off the ground and placing them on the cold metal table.

“You can’t be serious!”

“Leave her at your base then if you’re so worried!” Zim scowled at the human boy, annoyed that he was still in his lab.

“Ugh! Could you at least help me get her there?!”

“Why should I help you?!”

“Cause you’re the one who dragged me over here to get her out in the first place! And if you don’t, I’ll just stay here and start destroying everything you have!” Dib glared at the space boy.

Zim growled at his enemy, “FINE!”

“Okay, help me get her on my back. It’ll be easier to carry her.”

The disguised alien rolled his eyes, walked over to the two humans, and picked up the girl with ease. Dib arched his eyebrows in shock, “What? She barely weighs anything! It’s not my fault you’re weak!”

Dib let out a huff in annoyance, grabbed the journal off the table, and walked toward the elevators while Zim followed behind him. The panel next to the fridge opened up to reveal the trio, stepping out of the hidden lift.

“I don’t understand why you keep using your toilet and trash can if you can just use this,” Dib points at the wall with the journal still in his hand.

“Do not question me!” 

Kaya groaned in Zim’s arms and smacked his chest lightly with her hand. The boy carrying her furrowed his brows and frowned, “Why did she hit me?”

Dib snorted and walked past his longtime enemy, “Probably because you’re too loud.” 

“No, I’m not! I speak normally!” 

She smacked him again.

Zim followed behind Dib with the witch still in his arms, the boys bickered back and forth in hushed tones trying not to wake the exhausted girl. 

“You humans can die from lack of sleep? How are your species even alive?”

“That’s why we rest, Zim.”

Dib opened the door to his house, letting the alien in to set the girl down on the couch. He thought Zim would gently place the sleeping magician instead, he tossed the girl from five feet away and onto the sofa. Kaya bounced off the cushions and landed on the floor, she surprisingly didn’t wake up but there were pained moans coming from her.

“Zim!”

“What?! She’s been annoying me for weeks! Ever since you gave up on exposing me--”

“I didn’t give up!”

Zim continued, not hearing him, “--I had to deal with that human! And now that she’s out of my base, she’s your problem!” He turned around and marched out of the Membrane’s household. 

Dib stood under the frame of the door, shouting at the Irken, “I haven’t given up, Zim! I’ll let the whole world know you’re an alien!”

The Irken waved him off, not looking back, “Yeah, whatever!”

The large-headed boy scowled and shut the front door, he sighed when he remembered the hole GIR left. _Great._ He turned around and walked over to the couch, Kaya was lying face down on the floor. _Double great._

Zim stood straight with his arms behind his back like a good soldier he was as the elevator went down to his labs, he sighed at the mess of papers that was still on the ground. He marched over to the table and picked up one of the chaotic calculations, there were errors all over the place and at one point the human girl seemed to have given up and doodled on the side. _I don’t look like that!_ It was a very accurate drawing of him standing with his legs apart and laughing into the air. _Why did she draw this?_ He flipped to the other side to see more doodles of him and GIR. There was one of Minimoose with question marks drawn all around them. Zim put the paper down and picked up another one, more errors and doodles. Without thinking, the tall alien picked up one of her red pens, crossed out her mistakes, and wrote the correct answer above it. He hummed as he read through it, _this math sequence doesn't make sense_. Zim pulled the chair over to him and sat down, this time he picked up a piece of paper off the ground and analyzed it. The one he picked up had neater handwriting and fewer scribbles but still filled with errors. He had a lot of work to do.

\---

Dib frowned at the still sleeping girl on his couch. It’s been two days since Zim literally dropped her off and she was still resting, at least he knew she was still alive considering she would toss and turn every once in a while. Gaz didn’t seem to care that a random girl was sleeping on their couch however, his “father” kept asking questions and he’d rather pull his own teeth than speak to that man at the moment. 

“Dib! Stop watching her like a creeper and eat dinner! Dad made us meatloaf,” Gaz poked her head out from the kitchen.

Dib rolled his eyes, mumbling to his sister as he shuffled toward his dining table. He pulled his chair, the legs loudly scraping on the floor, and sat down with his arms crossed. 

Gaz scowled at her brother, she didn’t know what was going on with him lately but his mood swings were getting on her nerves. First, he’s sad, then he’s angry, then back to sad, then to happy for one day, and now angry. At this rate, she was starting to believe men can actually get periods and Dib has been PMS-ing for the past month. 

Professor Membrane placed the meals down for his kids, confidently striking a pose as he spoke, “Children, I hope you enjoy the meal I have prepared for you!”

Dib grabbed his fork and pushed his meal around, not really hungry, “Wow, thanks _dad_.” Sarcasm practically dripped from his mouth. 

“Son, is everything alright? You haven’t been acting like yourself lately,” the scientist frowned.

“Gee, you actually noticed,” Dib scowled at the block of ground beef on his plate while he stabbed it with a fork.

Gaz chewed at her dinner while staring at her older brother, she wanted to tell him to stop acting so bitchy but this was not the time.

“Of course I noticed! You are a teenager! You’re going through the rebellion phase of your life, that is why I am not grounding you for destroying the front door but must tell you I am very disappointed in you,” the Professor folded his hands in his lap as he spoke to his son.

The frustrated boy slammed his hand down at the table, “That wasn’t my fault! I told you it was Zim and his stupid robot servant!” 

“Dib. That is enough. If you are going to yell at me and cause a scene, you may head to your room,” the single father of two crossed his robotic arms.

“Fine. I’m not hungry anyway,” Dib got up from his chair and stomped toward his room.

Gaz and Professor Membrane watched the temperamental teenager walk away from his meal.

The Professor sighed and faced his younger child, “Daughter, do you have any idea why Dib is acting this way?”

“No, but I have a feeling someone does,” the girl stared at the couch in the living room.

The rest of dinner was mostly filled with silence, Gaz was never really in the mood to talk and her father’s mind was occupied with the new experiment taking place in his labs downtown. He never stayed home for long, always working on new inventions, but he tried to schedule some family time. The scientist grabbed his keys from the counter, he was needed at the facility.

“Gaz, make sure your brother eats something before bed,” he said while walking out of the kitchen.

The petite girl loaded the dishwasher and shut the door closed, “He’s sixteen, he can take care of himself.”

“That may be true daughter, but he is going through an emotional time. He needs to talk to someone.”

“Well, why don’t you talk to him then?” Gaz crossed her arms and stared at her father.

“It seems like he is angry with me, I am giving him some time to calm down before I lecture him,” the tall man walked toward the door that was now boarded up at the bottom. He stopped to stare at the strange girl on the couch, Dib said she was just a friend who needed a place to stay for a few days but he has never seen her before. He was worried about her wellbeing, she’s been sleeping for over two days now and could tell she was dehydrated and malnourished. He hoped his son was taking care of her at least. Professor Membrane turned to his daughter who was leaning against the archway of the kitchen.

“I’ll be leaving now, Gaz. Love you!” He waved to the girl and walked out the door, locking it after him.

Gaz pushed herself off the wall and mumbled at her father figure, “Yeah, love you too.”

Her gaze shifted to the girl on the couch after the front door shut closed, she walked over to her and shook her shoulder, “Hey! Wake up!”

The girl with jet black hair groaned and shoved her face into the throw pillow.

“Hey, sleeping beauty! Get up already!” Gaz practically yelled in the poor girl’s ear.

“Okay, okay! I’m awake! Fuck,” Kaya’s voice was hoarse from lack of use, her head felt like it was splitting open, her throat was dry, and her back was killing her. She rubbed her eyes and checked her surroundings, “Where am I?”

“My house. Now get up. I need you to talk to my stupid brother.”

Kaya clutched her head, “Could I get some water first?”

Gaz grunted in annoyance and walked back into the kitchen. She grabbed a cup and filled it up with water, “Here.” She shoved the mug into the girl’s hand.

The magician quickly drank the water, finishing it in seconds. “Thanks.”

“Whatever,” Gaz stared at the girl, “You need a shower.”

“Yeah, no shit,” she said with no malice in her voice. “How long have I been out?” Kaya’s eyes were bloodshot and still had dark circles surrounding them.

“Two, almost three days.”

“Ugh,” Kaya got up from the lumpy cushions, she swayed a bit but steadied herself by grabbing onto the couch. Her clothes stuck to her, she could feel the grime that covered her body, “Can I _please_ use your shower?”

“Sure, if you talk to my brother and make him stop bitching,” Gaz started walking up the stairs, expecting the girl to follow her.

“Deal.”

Kaya sighed as hot water pelted her still tired body, she was dizzy from the lack of food but at least she wasn’t seeing double. She grabbed Gaz’s shampoo and washed her hair for the second time, bubbles formed as she aggressively scratched at her scalp. She still didn’t understand why Zim’s place didn’t have a bathroom, dry shampoo can only do so much. The magician scrubbed her body, finally feeling clean after days of not showering, she turned off the faucet and grabbed the clean towel that Dib’s sister gave her. Kaya quickly dried herself off and put on the old clothes Gaz never wore anymore. She slipped on the black jeans that had red skulls on them and an old band t-shirt she never listened to, the pants were too big on her and had to wear a studded belt. _I look like I just stepped out of the early 2000’s Hot Topic._ The girl grabbed a hairbrush and combed through her ridiculously long hair, _I need a haircut._ She stopped brushing her hair and stared at the sink, Erik always loved her hair long. Kaya shook her head, she didn’t want to think about that right now. She grabbed her clothes she left on the floor and tossed them into the hamper behind her.

The thin girl squatted down to search the cabinet that was under the sink, she grabbed an extra toothbrush and toothpaste. The noise of her brushing her teeth filled the bathroom, the damp towel was around her shoulders to catch any drops of water from her wet hair. Once she was done, she placed her toothbrush under the sink cabinet again and stepped out of the bathroom. Kaya rubbed her still aching head as she walked over to Dib’s bedroom, she could see the yellow light under the door as she knocked.

“Go away Gaz. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I’m not your sister, open the door.”

The door flung open to reveal a surprised Dib, “Kaya! You’re awake!”

She stepped inside the boy’s room, dragging her feet in the process, “Yeah, your sister woke me up. Would you like to explain to me how I ended up at your place?”

“You fainted and Zim carried you over here,” Dib shut the door to his bedroom and watched the girl plop herself down on his bed.

“Of course he did,” the weak girl grabbed the towel off her shoulders and wrapped it around her hair, squeezing to get out excess water.

Dib sat down at his desk chair, still watching the girl, “Are you okay? You still look...tired.”

“I think you meant I look like shit and yes, I’m well aware of that,” Kaya rubbed her eyes with the palm of her hands.

Dib didn’t know what to say, “You...don’t look like...shit…”

Kaya gave him a deadpan stare, “You’re a horrible liar.” She flinched when she sat up straight, she still had sharp pains going through her spine, “I know I was sleeping on a couch but why does my back hurt this much?”

“Oh, uh...Zim kinda threw you and you landed on the floor.”

“He what?” Her voice lowered and gritted her teeth.

“Don’t shoot the messenger! He was pretty pissed at you, I’m surprised he didn’t conduct experiments on you!” Dib raised his hands in defense.

Kaya sighed, “Okay, maybe I deserved it. I did annoy him for the past couple of weeks.”

“What’d you even do?”

“Well, since you were being a moody teenager and not showing up to my lessons…” she glared at him while he gave her a nervous smile, “...he needed help with his new superweapon or whatever.”

Dib sat up and leaned toward the magician, “Wait, superweapon? What superweapon?!”

She held up her hand to stop him, “Don’t worry, I kept breaking it and repairing it wrong to annoy the shit out of him.”

“What? Why? I thought you were going to help him.”

“I would if he wasn’t such a controlling asshole! So I decided to mess with him instead. At one point I kept moving his tools an inch every day until it was two feet away from him,” she smiled at the memory of Zim trying to reach for something and instead fell over in his chair, leaning too far back.

Dib laughed, “Does that mean you’re on my side now?”

“I’m on no one’s side except mine,” she placed the damp towel on her lap, “So why are you still acting like a moody bitch?”

“Hey!”

“Your sister’s words, not mine!”

Dib sighed and stared up at the ceiling, “I just found out my whole life is a lie, that’s all.”

Kaya arched her eyebrow at the depressed teenager, “The hell does that mean?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Really? Cause it seems like you do,” she stared at the boy who wouldn’t look at her in the eye, waiting for him to speak. The two sat in silence, expecting the other to break but both were too stubborn to give up. That was until Kaya’s stomach growled loudly.

Dib couldn’t help but laugh.

“Yeah, yeah, very funny. I’m hungry.”

“When was the last time you ate?”

“As in a meal or just eat?”

“Uh, both? I guess?”

Kaya hummed, thinking back to her last meal. _Shit, when was the last time I ate anything?_ She stayed silent, trying to calculate how long she’s been on the run.

“You know what? Let's just get you some food,” Dib stood up from his chair and walked over to the door.

The magician sat down at the dinner table as Dib prepared her some oatmeal in the microwave, even though her stomach was protesting for some food she didn’t feel like eating. The girl sat there, picking at her nails, as she listened to the soft whirls of the dishwasher coming to an end and the loud beeps of the microwave as her dinner finished cooking. She flinched as another sharp pain went through her back as she shifted in her chair, _damn you, Zim._

Dib’s dinner was wrapped and still on the counter, now that his father was gone his appetite was back. He picked up the plate and unwrapped it, grabbed a fork, and placed it on the table. The microwave annoyingly chirped behind him, he turned around and opened the door to grab the hot bowl. He gently placed the bowl in front of the magician who was trying to massage her own back with her hand.

“Why don’t you just heal yourself with your magic?” Dib grabbed a spoon and some maple syrup for the girl.

“Because I’m still exhausted and if I even do one spell, I’ll faint again.” She grabbed the liquid sugar and poured some on the bland oatmeal.

Dib sat down next to her and cut a piece of meatloaf off with the side of the fork, “Well, maybe if you took care of yourself, you wouldn’t be this tired.” He scolded the older girl.

“Who are you? My grandmother?” She took a small bite of her hot meal.

The two ate in silence, the only noise was their metal utensils hitting and scraping on ceramic. Dib picked up their dirty dishes and put them in the sink to wash them while the girl watched.

“I’m guessing your mood swings are the result of your absent father?” Kaya leaned back in her chair.

Dib sighed, that girl never knew when to stop. “Why do you care this much?”

“I technically don’t, but your sister does.”

“My sister?” Dib turned to her, “Are we talking about the same Gaz here?”

Kaya shrugged, “She’s still your sister, of course she cares.”

The teenager frowned and focused back on the dishes, mumbling to himself, “Doubt it.”

“Look, I get it that you have family drama. Everyone does. Life isn’t like a TV show, it can’t be fixed with some cheesy music and a laugh track but at least talk to your sister about it or something,” she was picking at her nails again.

Dib dried his hands on the kitchen towel and turned to the girl, “She wouldn’t understand. And neither would you. So just drop it okay?”

Kaya stopped her bad habit to look up at Dib, she narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, “Try me.”

“What?”

“Tell me what is so sucky about your fuckin’ life and I’ll tell you about mine.”

Dib scowled, “No.”

“Fine. Then, man up.”

“Fuck you!”

“Aw, it’s cute that you think that’ll offend me.”

Dib threw his hands up in the air in frustration, “No wonder Zim threw you out!” He stormed out of the kitchen and went back up to his room.

Kaya sighed, “Well that didn’t work.” She got up from the table and opened up the newly installed kitchen window, “Aw, Zim! Did you miss me that much that you’re spying on me now?”

The alien froze in his squatting position, there was some sort of apparatus attached to Dib’s house while the other end was on the side of Zim’s head where his ear would be if he had one. He stayed still.

“You know I can see you right? I’m not a T-rex, I can still see you even if you’re not moving,” she leaned out the window as she spoke.

Zim slowly looked up at her with wide eyes, “HOW DO YOU KEEP FINDING ME?!”

“I have a hyperactive sense of smell and can detect you with my nostrils,” she said sarcastically.

“Really?!” He shot up from his spot.

“No!”

Zim’s face fell and scowled at the girl in annoyance, focusing on her tired face, “You look horrible.”

“Wow, never get a girlfriend.”

“Girl...friend?” He looked at the magician in confusion. The last time he heard that word, meat was thrown at him.

“You know...someone you date? Someone that you’re interested in? The person you enjoy your company with?” As she kept talking, Zim looked more and more confused. “Okay, how do you not know what a girlfriend is? You go to a high school filled with horny teenagers.”

“Those stupid humans don’t have horns!” 

Kaya looked at Zim with disbelief, “Do I need to throw a dictionary at your face?”

“What kind of question is that?!” Zim growled at her.

The tired girl rubbed her face with her hands and looked at the Irken with irritation, “I’m going back to sleep. Good night, Zim.”

“Wait!”

“What?”

“Put this in Dib-stink’s bedroom!” He held out a small device with the Irken insignia engraved on the side.

“What is it?” She took it from him and observed it, the device was an irregular shape: a lot of curves and sharp angles.

“That’s not important! Don’t leave it in plain sight, hide it somewhere he would never find it!” Zim took the listening appliance off the Dib-human’s home.

“Fine, I’ll do it tomorrow when he’s at school. Can I go now?” She crossed her arms and gave him a bored expression.

Zim waved his hand to the girl, “Yeah, yeah go. You’ve been useful for once.”

Kaya rolled her eyes, “Night, Zim.” She shut the window closed and walked back into the living room, turning off the kitchen light as she passed the light switch, and laid back down on the couch.

Zim watched her shut the window, making sure she was gone when he pulled out his tablet from his PAK. The stylus was in his left hand as he wrote: _Look up girlfriend and horn-ee._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I know the whole T-rexes can't see you if you stand still is a myth but I didn't know what to put so...


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 11 is here and it's the longest one I have! A bit of warning it does involve a minor character death and a whole pie of angst. We're going to learn more about Charlotte and Professor Membrane in this chapter. Hope you guys enjoy it.  
> BTW I still don't know how laboratories work so just nod along even though it's wrong. Thank you.

Dib stared at his long-time alien enemy. He has been acting strange all day, there was a haunted look in his eyes and would flinch at everybody who came near him. A guy accidentally bumped into him in the halls and he screamed at the poor guy to never touch him. Dib raised his eyebrow at the Irken who sat down at a random table, his back was straight as an arrow, his shoulders tensed while he laced his fingers, and stared at the wall without getting a school lunch.

“Something’s wrong with Zim,” Dib said to Gaz as she sat down next to him.

Gaz looked up to stare at the green boy and back down to focus on her game, “He looks fine to me.”

Zim’s left eye twitched.

“No...something is definitely wrong with him,” Dib scooped up the unnaturally green peas with his spork and took a large bite. He chewed slowly as he stared at the spasming space boy. 

He shouldn’t have looked up those words. Those _horrible_ words. Zim wished he could scrub his organic brain with cleansing chalk. He already got rid of the memories stored in his PAK but the expression to describe human arousal and looking at the videos that were related to the research was a huge mistake. His left eye twitched as the memory haunted him...the horrible noises. _STOP IT! DON’T THINK ABOUT THAT!_

Zim started to bounce his leg as his anxiety coursed through his body. The term to describe a female mate just reminded him of Tak, he can remember the sting of barbeque sauce on the rack of meat she threw at him years ago. He shivered at the thought of the vengeful female Irken, he had a feeling she wasn’t dead. She was still out there plotting to take over _his_ mission. Zim tightened his grip, his fingers dug into the back of his hands, maybe the human witch could get rid of the problem. Then again that horrible earthworm has been making everything difficult for him. 

He didn’t know why he wasted a day solving her little math problems and arranging them in the correct order; the paper was neatly stacked on the metal table in his labs. He also didn’t know why he expected her to be back in his labs the next day, annoying him further but a small pit of disappointment formed when she didn’t return and grew larger as the days passed. Zim scowled at the wall he was staring at, whatever he was feeling, he hated it. 

The male Irken jumped in his seat when he heard the bell ring, signaling lunchtime was over. He scanned the room to watch all the pitiful humans get up from their respective tables, throwing their trash away, and walking out the double doors to get to their next class. Zim’s eyes landed on Dib-stink, he was staring at him.

“What?!” He glared at the human.

Dib narrowed his eyes, “You’re acting weirder than usual.”

Zim stood up from his table, “NO I’M NOT! I’M BEING NORMAL! YOU’RE BEING WEIRDER THAN USUAL!” He pointed at Dib’s humongous head.

Dib got up from his seat, “How?! I was just sitting here eating my lunch! You’re the one who glared at a wall for an hour!” 

“So?! I’m not the one who is being a moody female dog!”

“Wha--?” Dib’s jaw dropped. _How the hell did Zim know…?_ _Kaya._ His face shifted to anger as he stormed out of the cafeteria.

“SEE?! HE’S BEING WEIRD!” Zim grabbed an innocent bystander, shaking them slightly as he yelled. “SEE?! DO YOU SEE?!” He flailed his right arm at the doors Dib walked out of.

“Y-yeah, I get it! Dib’s weird! Could you let go of me now?!” Fear was etched onto the high schooler’s face.

Zim roughly pushed the human away from him, walking through the doors himself to get to his next inferior class.

\---

Kaya loudly yawned as she got up from the couch, she definitely feels better today and her back was only aching a little bit. She checked the time in the living room, _shit I slept the day away._ The girl stretched her back, sighing as she heard her spine crack, and looked down at the coffee table. Her clothes were neatly folded with a letter on top of it. She grabbed the note and opened it.

_Washed your clothes for you. You’re welcome._

_-Gaz_

_P.S. You can keep the ones you have on._

Kaya set the note back down and grabbed her clothes, _well that was oddly sweet of her._ She went up the stairs to grab another shower before the Membranes returned from school. 

The bathroom door opened to reveal the magician back in her clothes and the towel she had to get from Dib’s room on her shoulders. Speaking of Dib’s room, Kaya took out the weirdly shaped device that Zim gave her last night that was stuffed between Gaz’s old clothing. She almost forgot about it, until it slipped out of the front pocket of the jeans and onto the bathroom mat while she was folding them.

The girl stepped into the teenager’s room and took a good look around, trying to figure out where to hide Zim’s little gadget. She counted how many monitors that boy had in his room, some hung down from the ceiling. _What the hell is he looking at to have that many monitors?_ Various posters about space, aliens, ghosts, and anything paranormal were stuck on the walls with tape. There were old clothes and probably old homework on the floor like a normal messy teenager. Kaya walked over to Dib’s bed, thinking she could just stuff the device under his mattress and get it over with. She set the clothes on the comforters and lifted the corner of the bed, only to find a magazine faced down. _Ooh la la, what is this?_ The nosy girl picked up the thin magazine and quickly flipped through until she reached the middle that had a poster embedded between the pages. Her brows furrowed as she let the image fall open and held it away from her.

"What the hell is wrong with that boy?"

It was a poster of Bigfoot. The magazine focused on the paranormal. She shook her head as she folded the image back into the thin booklet and stuffed it between the mattresses. Kaya sighed as she shifted over to Dib's crowded desk. As she turned, her foot nudged a book off to the side. She crouched down to pick up the brown leather notebook that she accidentally kicked under the bed, the word failure was stuck onto the spine and front cover. Kaya furrowed her brows and opened the old journal, she slowly sat down on Dib's desk chair as she read through the passages.

\---

The TV droned on as Kaya rested her feet on the coffee table, the main seven were going through different timelines on who would get the pizza while the others stayed in the apartment. So far, the darkest timeline was her favorite. The front door opened to reveal an annoyed teenager with his scythe-like hair.

He turned to the girl that was still on his couch, "Why are you still here?" he scowled at her.

"Ooooh, someone is extra moody today." She turned off the television and crossed her arms.

Dib clenched his fists, "Okay, that's it! I want you out!"

Kaya got up from the sofa and waved the brown journal around Dib's angry face, "Don't you want this back first?"

Dib's eyes widened as he realized it was the journal that was on the floor...in his bedroom...he quickly snatched it out of the girl's hands, "WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?!"

The magician shrugged, completely unfazed by his outburst, "I needed to get my towel."

“SO YOU SNOOPED AROUND MY ROOM?!” He stepped closer to the bored girl, anger coursed through his body.

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t leave important books on the floor,” her uninterested stare never wavered.

Dib threw his hands in the air, “What is wrong with you?!”

“Look, I’m sorry I went through your stuff but I knew something was still bothering you,” she crossed her arms. “And last time you were like this, you didn’t show up to our lessons. Don’t you think we wasted enough time?”

Dib’s face was still scowling, “ _You’re_ the one who skipped three days to look at my dad’s journal!”

“Yeah. And _you’re_ the one who skipped a week to throw yourself a pity party,” her expression hardened with anger.

“So what?! I found out I’m a clone of my dad! He didn’t even want me!” Tears started collecting around the corners of his eyes, “My whole life is just a lie! I’m not Dib! I’m nothing but a failure!” He turned around to wipe the tears, he was not going to let the girl see him cry. “I don’t know who I am anymore,” he whispered out.

“You found out you’re a clone. Boohoo. But you’re still Dib. You’re nothing like Professor Membrane, you have your own thoughts, feelings, interests...you say he doesn’t want you but you’re still here. He calls you his son.”

Dib sniffed, still wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket while he held his glasses and book with his left hand.

“He still cares about you, there’s obviously more to the story than just that book,” Kaya stared at the silently crying boy. His shoulders were slumped down, defeated. “Do you want to know what happened?”

The sad teenager quickly put his glasses back on and turned to the girl, “What do you mean? How would you know?”

“Do you and Zim just periodically forget that I’m a magician?” Kaya arched her eyebrow at the boy, with a slight smirk on her face.

Dib couldn’t but huff with amusement, “Yeah, well, magic is still pretty new to us…” He looked down at the old journal then back up to the girl with new determined eyes. “I want to know.”

Kaya smiled, “Then I’m going to need more of those journals and some twine.”

The magician played with the long string of butcher’s twine in her hands as she watched Dib go through a box in the back of his garage. Her gaze slowly shifted to the large object hidden under a white sheet that took up most of the space, she slowly inched her foot toward the tarp and tried to take a peek at what was underneath but was interrupted by Dib quickly turning around with more books. She dropped her foot back instantly.

“Okay, these are it,” the boy dropped five more journals into her arms.

“Jesus Christ,” Kaya struggled to keep all of them in her hands. “I didn’t expect your father to write down this much shit.”

“Yeah, neither did I,” Dib rolled his eyes as a book fell onto the floor, crouching to pick it up as Kaya stacked the books in her arms. 

“Are these in order?”

“...is...that important?”

Kaya gave Dib a deadpan stare and shoved the books back into his arms. She walked out of the back door connected to the stuffy garage as the boy behind her juggled the books around. The girl looked around the backyard and smirked at a neighbor’s tree.

“Hey Zim! Wanna go on an adventure with us?!” She shouted out the tree she was staring at.

Dib ran out with the books pressed close to his chest, “What?!”

Zim’s head popped out of the tree, “I WILL FIND OUT HOW YOU DO THIS HUMAN WENCH! I WILL FIGURE IT OUT AND YOU WILL NOT STOP ALMIGHTY ZIM!”

“I’m not stopping you from anything! Now are you going to join us or what?!”

Dib looked at Kaya like she was insane, “What are you doing?! He’s the enemy!”

“He’s _your_ enemy. I just think he’s amusing.”

“How?!”

Kaya grabbed the books out of Dib’s arms, “Have you heard him speak? It’s hilarious.” Her face nor voice showed any emotion.

Dib’s brows knit together, showing concern, “I...can’t tell if you’re joking or not.”

“Yeah get used to that,” she turned around and smiled at the alien. “Nice of you to join us.”

“I’M ONLY JOINING YOU TO SEE WHAT YOU TWO ARE PLANNING!” Zim angrily pointed at the smiling girl.

Dib rubbed his temples, “Does he _have_ to join us?”

“Yes,” both replied to Dib, although Zim yelled it out.

“Are these in order now?” Kaya held the journals close to her body.

“Yeah, I think so.”

Zim looked at the two humans with confusion, “What are you two doing? Why do you need more books?” He turned to the magician who was wrapping the notebooks with the string.

Kaya ignored Zim’s questions as she focused on the long strand of twine, encasing the books with it as she spoke out an incantation. The two boys watched her with interest as the spell she was casting affected the atmosphere around them. Instead of being outside, four white walls shot up from the ground, the grass turned into tile and the blue sky disappeared, replaced with fluorescent lights and white panels. The color changed into a sepia tone like they were in an old photograph as the magician finished the spell and tied a knot on top of the stack of books.

“What language was--”

“WHERE ARE WE?!” Zim cut Dib off and ran around the room, looking everywhere, trying to find an exit. “You tricked me! You’re trying to expose me, aren’t you?!”

“Zim, will you calm down--”

“AREN’T YOU?!” 

“Zim, if you don’t calm down I’m going to put another silencing spell on you!” Kaya took a step toward the alien as she shouted at him. The two glared at each other while Dib shifted his gaze to the girl and back at Zim. “And no! I’m not trying to expose you or whatever. We’re in the past. The spell will show us what the books have witnessed. No one can hear, see, or touch us.”

“Wait, the past? Does that mean there’s a way to manipulate the future?” Dib asked.

“No! I am not doing that again! I have learned my lesson last time,” Zim crossed his arms and looked away from the two humans.

Kaya gave the alien a questioning stare, she shook her head and looked back at Dib, “Sorry, let me rephrase that. We’re not technically in the past, it’s more like going through memories. The first book of the stack will show us what your father went through.”

“So, we can’t change anything?”

“Nope. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show,” she shoved the bound journals to the large-headed boy. “Here, hold this.”

“Why?”

“Cause I don’t want to.”

Dib gave her an annoyed stare as she walked out of the room and into a hallway. The two boys followed the girl, wondering where they were going until they heard voices coming to them. Dib froze on the spot while Zim panicked and hid behind a large potted plant that was in the corner. Kaya stood in the middle of the hallway, waiting for the two voices to come closer. She looked back to see Dib pressing his body against the wall while Zim was peeking out of his hiding spot. She couldn’t help but chuckle at the alien.

“You guys do remember that I said no one can see us right?”

Zim instantly shot up from the corner, “I KNEW THAT!”

“Uh-huh.”

The two people turned the corner and phased through Kaya like she wasn’t there, one was a younger Professor Membrane and the other was a shorter man with thick glasses and a nervous stutter. The young Professor looked so much like Dib, it was slightly unsettling. The three followed the pair as they walked into the workspace the trio came from and watched the scene unfold.

_“D-do you think it worked?”_

_“Of course it worked, Henry!” He gave the awkward man a pat on the back, “You and I created the perfect antidote for food poisoning! Now we just need a human test subject and get it approved by the board,” Professor Membrane smiled, his face wasn’t hidden behind his lab coat._

_“Yeah, good luck with that!” A woman with long purple hair and hazel eyes came in with a pink box packed with donuts and a cardboard cup holder filled with coffees. “We can’t have human test subjects anymore, remember?” The petite woman set the food and drinks down at a nearby table and took out a scrunchie from her purse to tie her hair back._

_“C-Charlotte!” It wasn’t the shorter man who was stuttering. “Is it 6 AM already?”_

_The pretty woman smiled, “Good morning to you too Professor Membrane.” She grabbed one of the larger cups of coffee and handed it to the tall man, “I’m guessing you stayed in the labs instead of going home like I told you to?”_

_The Professor blushed and chuckled, “Yes, well...my work is never done!”_

“That’s Charlotte?” Dib clutched the books to his chest, “She looks so much like Gaz…”

Kaya stayed quiet as she leaned against the wall with her arms crossed while Zim tried to read the papers on the long metal tables from the past. It was useless though, they were all scribbles.

“Is there any way to fast forward?” Dib turned to the magician, the three of them were watching the scientist at work.

“Sure, give me the stack,” Kaya waved her hand toward Dib, ushering him to hand over the books.

Dib walked over to her and gently placed the journals on her open hands. Kaya pressed her right thumb over the closed books and slowly ran her short nail through the pages.

“Tell me when to stop.”

Different scenarios skimmed over, the background changed around them as Kaya fast-forwarded: there was a celebration at some point, most of the scenes were different scientists coming in and out, more work, more coffee, a lot more Charlotte.

“Stop!” Dib waved his hand as Kaya stopped mid-way of book number three.

_Professor Membrane paced in the labs with chalk tightly gripped in his hands, this was his most important work yet. Cloning was unheard of, taboo at the company he worked for, but this could give him the recognition he rightfully deserved. The only two who knew about his research were Charlotte and Henry. He was so focused on pacing that he didn’t realize a certain purple-haired woman came into the room with some more coffee while Henry was at his desk, snoring into the table. Charlotte rolled her eyes at the man she’s been working with for the past three years._

_“You’re going to wear out the floor,” she walked toward him with the steaming mug in her hands._

_The Professor jumped at the sound of her voice and adjusted his round glasses, “Well I can’t seem to figure out how to keep the specimens alive during the gestation period.” He rubbed his tired eyes._

_Charlotte hummed as she stared at the chalkboard, “Maybe we need to create an incubator instead of just tossing them into the vat of life-sustaining fluid I made.” She handed the scientist the cup of coffee she made._

_He sighed, “You’re probably right.” The Professor took a small sip from the mug, “You’re not having any?”_

_“No, I need to get home. It’s…” she checked her watch and sighed, “...two in the morning.”_

_The Professor flinched, he didn’t realize how late it had gotten, “Maybe you should stay here instead, you can have the couch in the lounge. I need to tweak the formula one more time.”_

_Charlotte grabbed the mug from the scientist’s hands and set it on the counter behind the blackboard, “No way! You’re getting some sleep! You’ve been awake for too long!” She put her hands on her hips as she lectured the man in front of her._

_“I’ll be fine! I have your delicious coffee to keep me awake!” He gave her his most dazzling smile._

_“Did I mention that’s decaf?” She smiled as the Professor’s grin dropped._

_“You tricked me?” He gasped as he clutched his chest, “How could you do this to me, Charlotte? I trusted you!” He looked away and placed the back of his hand on his forehead like he was going to faint._

_Charlotte giggled at his theatrics, “Stop being so over-dramatic and go to bed.”_

_“Only if you stay here, it’s too late to be driving home.”_

_“Fine. I can sleep in one of the chairs--”_

_“No. You’re taking the couch, it may not be as comfortable as a mattress but it’s better than the chairs in this facility.”_

_The exhausted woman sighed, she didn’t want to argue anymore, “Okay, fine.”_

_Professor Membrane smiled, “Let me walk you over.”_

_The pair discussed their new project as they shuffled over to the lounge that was on the second floor of the building. Charlotte smiled as she watched the Professor talk so passionately about science, she would periodically agree with him until they reached the lounge._

_“You didn’t have to walk with me, I know where the break room is.”_

_The Professor gave her a shy smile, blushing slightly, “It’s no trouble, I enjoy your company.”_

_Charlotte’s face heated up, those two have been dancing around each other for too long. The male scientist had been working up the courage to finally ask her out on a date but he would always back out at the last second. This was one of those times._

_“Well, I should let you get some rest--”_

_“Professor, wait.” Charlotte grabbed his hand before he could run back to his office._

_“Yes?”_

_The woman held his gaze, determined, “Go out with me this weekend.”_

_Professor Membrane’s eyes widened, his jaw dropped, his heart was beating so fast it was all he could hear, he was stumbling over his words while his face turned red._

_Charlotte chuckled, “Is that a yes?”_

_“YES!” He shouted so loud it echoed through the empty facility, he cleared his throat, “I mean yes.”_

_“Great! I’ll pick you up at seven on Saturday,” she gave him a smile and opened the door to the break room._

_“In the morning or at night?” He didn’t know why he asked that._

_She laughed, “PM, Professor. Good night.” She stood up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek and closed the door._

_His whole body felt like it was on fire, he pressed himself against the cool wall with a goofy grin on his still burning face. The Professor didn’t know how long he was standing there but when he finally calmed down, he pushed himself off the wall and walked down the stairs toward his office. He hasn’t been this happy since he got his PhD._

_He sunk down in his crappy desk chair and opened up his journal, most of his entries were about his new inventions and studies but more and more were becoming about Charlotte. He picked up the gold plated fountain pen he got from his mother when he graduated and wrote down another entry about the woman that wouldn’t leave his mind._

_\---_

_Their relationship was kept a secret for months. Charlotte didn’t like office gossip and wanted to keep it private; Professor Membrane respected her wishes and agreed. The two tried to stay a secret as long as possible until Henry found them kissing in the Professor’s office. Henry apologized profusely and stumbled at his words as he ran out of the room. People next door heard the commotion and word quickly spread about the couple. Charlotte got nasty stares from other women coworkers while the Professor got a pat on the back for finally manning up to ask out his crush. He could tell it was taking a toll on Charlotte, rumors were starting to pick up that she was only part of his team because she was sleeping with him. She’s only using him to get ahead and she was easy while the males kept encouraging the Professor and asking him too many personal questions. It was becoming too much._

_“THAT IS ENOUGH!” Professor Membrane slammed his fists at the table he was sitting at during his lunch break. “All of you stop pestering me about Charlotte! And stop spreading those horrible rumors around about her! No, she is not part of my team because she slept with me! She’s part of my team because she is brilliant and works her ass off! None of you stay late to finish your job, none of you triple-check your work, none of you help each other, none of you will ever be as inventive as Charlotte!” He quickly walked out of the lounge to get to his office. “Oh and another thing! She asked me out first!” He shouted at the shocked scientists and engineers who were still eating their lunch. People stepped out of the way, not wanting to cross paths with the fuming scientist. He slammed the door shut and closed the blinds on his windows, he needed a nap._

_The Professor jumped in his seat when he felt someone run their hand through his hair, he adjusted his glasses to see Charlotte smiling at him._

_“Sorry! Didn’t mean to scare you.”_

_He cleared his throat, his voice was still groggy from the nap, “It’s okay, is something the matter?”_

_Charlotte leaned against the desk, “I heard you ‘defended my honor’ during lunch?” She arched her thin eyebrow at him._

_“Oh...that...I--”_

_“You didn’t have to do that. I could’ve defended myself.”_

_Professor Membrane sighed and held onto Charlotte’s hands, “I know you could have, but I was getting sick of the whispers. I could tell it was getting to you too.”_

_Charlotte squeezed his hands, reassuring the worried scientist, “I’m fine, Professor.”_

_"You keep saying that,” he gently pushed back loose strands of hair behind her ear._

_She gave him a soft smile, “That’s because I am. I can handle the gossip, even if it is a bit degrading. At the end of the day, they don’t know who I am or what I’ve been through to get to here. They just gossip to feel better about themselves.”_

_“Once I have my own laboratory, you won’t have to worry about all the tittle-tattle.”_

_Charlotte laughed at the outdated word, “When do you think that would be?”_

_The Professor hummed, “I would say after we successfully clone something that is worth its value.”_

_“Speaking of cloning, Henry made a prototype of the incubator I designed.”_

_The excited male scientist stood up so quickly that his chair rolled into the wall behind him, “It’s finished?!”_

_“Yes, but I doubt that it’ll work on its first try. We need to--”_

_“Don’t sell yourself short, Charlotte! You worked on this design for months! If anything goes wrong, I’ll just blame Henry!”_

_Charlotte gently smacked her boyfriend’s arm, “Don’t do that to poor Henry! He’s been working just as hard as us!”_

_“I was joking! I would never do that to my friend,” he smiled at the scowling woman, hoping to be forgiven._

_She rolled her eyes and kissed the Professor’s cheek, “C’mon, we have more work to do.”_

_The two walked out of the office, holding each other’s hands._

_\---_

_The sound of feet pacing could be heard down the hall, the Professor’s hair was sticking out in every direction and had heavy bags under his eyes. The incubator has been modified over twenty times now within several months and on top of that everything had to be kept a secret so that meant more nights at the office, which meant no sleep for the great Professor Membrane. He kept circling around the large tube that held a clone of a beloved lab rat in the center. It’s been in there for three weeks and its vitals were normal, this has been the longest any specimen has lived up to. He kept checking the reports every five minutes, making sure everything was going smoothly._

_“U-um...Professor?” Henry adjusted his glasses as he watched his mentor traverse around the incubator they had to hide in one of the janitor’s closets during the day._

_The exhausted man didn’t hear him and kept his eyes on the lab rat._

_“P-professor Membrane!” He tried to sound more assertive but it came out more like a desperate whimper._

_An angry woman in a light blue dress and black flats loudly cleared her throat. Henry flinched at the sound. The two men looked up at Charlotte, the Professor quickly checked his watch in horror._

_“Charlotte, I--”_

_She walked out of the door before the Professor could finish talking._

_“Henry! Watch Doug!” He shouted over his shoulder to run after his irked girlfriend._

_“W-wait! Is Doug the rat?” It was too late, Henry was left alone with the animal that was suspended in the green fluid._

_For a woman who was only five foot three, she walked incredibly fast. She was already out the hallway when the Professor stopped her._

_“Charlotte, I am so sorry.”_

_“You did this,_ again _.” She crossed her arms and looked away, frustrated tears welling up her eyes._

_“I know, I’m sorry. Please let me make this up to--”_

_“You said that last time,” she turned around to gently dab away the tears._

_The Professor opened his mouth, trying to find the words to comfort her but everything he thought of were excuses: he lost track of time, he was busy watching the experiment, he didn’t have time to run home to change and meet her like he said he would. All he could do is apologize and hope she would accept it, but the last couple of months were apologies. He stood there, anxiously opening and closing his fists as he watched the woman he loved cry because of him._

_Charlotte took a deep breath and turned back around, mascara was slightly smudged under her eyes, “I’m pregnant.”_

_“What?” He felt his stomach drop to the floor, his heart was beating out of his chest, sudden adrenaline rushed through his veins, any drowsiness in his body left him._

_“That’s why I wanted you to talk to you tonight, but…” She felt tears well up, “How the hell am I already having mood swings?” She wiped her eyes again with annoyance, not caring her makeup was smudged all over her face._

_“I’m...going to be a father?” The Professor’s eyes were wide as he stared at the woman he absolutely adored._

_Charlotte nodded, “I understand if you don’t want a baby, I--”_

_Professor Membrane grabbed Charlotte and hugged her, “Of course I want our child.”_

_A choked sob came out of the distraught woman, “But we’re not even married! People will start talking again!”_

_“I’ll just cause another scene, it’ll be fine.”_

_Charlotte sniffed and giggled, “My parents are going to have a fit.” She tried to rub away the black streak of eyeliner she left on his lab coat._

_The Professor let go of his hug and placed his hands on her upper arms, “Charlotte.”_

_She tilted her head up to meet his gaze._

_“I know I’ve been focused on this cloning experiment but you are the most important person in my life. I truly am sorry for hurting you, I should’ve noticed the time.”_

_She sighed, “I just wish you would take better care of yourself.”_

_A chuckle escaped from the Professor’s mouth, of course she was more worried about him, “Does this mean I’m forgiven?”_

_She narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend, “For ditching our date? Yes. For getting me pregnant? No.”_

_He gasped dramatically, “Are you regretting laying with me?”_

_Charlotte snorted with laughter, “Which era are you from?”_

_The Professor smiled when he heard her laughter, even with makeup smeared over her face, she looked beautiful, “Will you marry me?”_

_It was her turn to be surprised as her eyes went wide at the sudden question, “What?”_

_Professor Membrane shoved his hand in the right pocket of his lab coat and fumbled around to get the black velvet box out. He finally brought it out and opened the small case, revealing a gold ring with a princess cut diamond in the middle and smaller ones surrounding it, making it look like leaves were sprouting out from the center._

_“I meant to ask a few weeks ago but…” He trailed off as his face warmed up, he was afraid she would say no._

_Charlotte sniffed again and more tears started falling from her hazel eyes._

_The Professor started panicking when he saw the waterworks pick up again, did he do something wrong? Maybe he should’ve asked sooner? Later? Maybe this wasn’t the right time? Of course, it wasn’t the right time! She just told him she was pregnant and--_

_“Yes.”_

_“Yes?”_

_“Yes. I’ll marry you,” Charlotte smiled as the tears finally stopped._

_He smiled back and picked her up, spinning her as they both laughed, “I love you so much, Charlotte. I promise you I’ll make more time for us,” he gently put her down and rested his chin on top of her head as he pulled her close._

_Charlotte wrapped her arms around his torso and nuzzled her face in his chest, “I’m holding you to that.”_

_\---_

_Charlotte watched her fiance frantically run around their new house, trying to get everything settled in before the day ends. He refused her help and made her sit on the sofa for most of the day. She rolled her eyes as he stumbled through the front door and collapsed on the single lounge chair._

_“I could have carried in the pillows at least,” she flipped through the book she brought over from her old apartment._

_“I didn’t want you to get hurt!”_

_“From pillows?” She closed the book and arched her eyebrow at the Professor._

_“It could happen!” He got up from his seat and walked over to Charlotte, sitting next to her instead. “I’m just overprotective of you and our baby, that’s all.”_

_Charlotte smiled and rested her hand on her growing stomach, “Yeah, a little too much.”_

_Professor Membrane chuckled and kissed the side of her head, “Excuse me for caring.”_

_“Oh shush and go pick up some pizza. Your son is demanding food.”_

_The Professor smirked and got up from the sofa, he kissed his wife-to-be and headed outside to his car. The ride over to the pizza place wasn’t long, some place called Bloaty’s Pizza Hog just opened up in the neighborhood. The establishment had an arcade attached to it and screaming children running all over the place while the already rundown animatronics danced around on a stage. Professor Membrane questioned the logistics of the restaurant but he already drove there and ordered a large pepperoni pizza. The food came alarmingly quick, he inspected it before taking it from the overworked teenager but it looked like a normal greasy pizza. He thanked the boy, taking some paper plates and napkins before walking out of the loud restaurant. He set the food on the passenger’s seat and started his car, driving back to his new house._

_The Professor parked his car in the garage, taking his keys out of the ignition, and stepped out of the vehicle. He walked over to the passenger seat to take out the pizza and closed the garage doors as he stepped back into the house._

_“Well, that was fast!” Charlotte started unpacking some boxes while the male scientist was out._

_The Professor set down the still-hot pizza on the coffee table, “It wasn’t too far from here.”_

_Charlotte walked over and thanked the Professor as he handed her a slice that was too big for the plate. The two sat down on the couch again as they ate, Charlotte leaned back against the arm of the couch with a pillow supporting her back. She brought her legs up, resting them on the Professor’s thighs while she used her pregnant belly as a table. This was how they spent their dinners most nights, just enjoying each other’s company as they ate. He tried to keep his promise on spending more time with her, but his cloning project came a close second. The Professor took Charlotte’s empty plate off her stomach, asking if she wanted more. She nodded and moved her legs away so he could grab the pizza for both of them._

_“By the way, my mom called while you were out.”_

_Professor Membrane groaned, he couldn’t understand how an uptight woman created someone as wonderful as Charlotte, “Please tell me she’s moving to Florida.”_

_Charlotte laughed, “She just wanted to know how the move went...and when we will stop living in sin.”_

_“Ha! So the usual,” he sat back down, placing the paper plate back onto Charlotte’s stomach while she brought her legs back onto his lap._

_“I warned you, she’s religious. I thought she was going to faint when we told her I was pregnant.”_

_“I’m surprised your father didn’t try to kill me with that shotgun,” he took another bite of his pizza as he stared at his fiancée._

_“Who said he didn’t try?” She smirked as she watched the Professor stop chewing and looked at her in shock. “I’m joking, sweetie.”_

_“Oh, thank God. Don’t tell your mother I said that.”_

_Charlotte laughed again, “Only if you talk to her on the phone next time, you can’t avoid her forever.”_

_“I can if I run away.” He gave her a cheeky grin._

_She tried to sit up to smack his arm but he leaned away from her, instead she hit the sofa, “Very funny, Professor Membrane.”_

_The Professor chuckled, “Alright, I’ll speak to her tomorrow.”_

_Charlotte frowned, it was still early in the night, “Are you staying in the labs tonight?”_

_“I have to, I need to check on the Dodo experiment. After what happened with Doug the rat, we need to make sure the timing is correct to release the specimen from their incubator.” Professor Membrane frowned at the memory of the clone slowly being deteriorated by the same liquid that was supposed to keep it alive. Apparently staying in the life-sustaining fluid for too long could damage the cells of the body. They had to step back: calculate the amount of time a specimen can be in the solution, empty out the incubator and scrub it clean, and create more of the thick liquid for the next project. They were behind schedule._

_“But we just moved in! You must be exhausted.”_

_The Professor sighed and leaned over to place the half-eaten pizza slice onto the coffee table, he was tired but he had gone days without sleep before, “I’ll be fine.”_

_“So you’re just going to leave me here? On the first night being home?”_

_He flinched at the accusation, he didn’t think about that, “Maybe I can convince Henry to watch over the experiment tonight.”_

_Charlotte rubbed her forehead with her hand, “No, he’s been there long enough. I’m getting worried about him, he’s been more quiet than usual.”_

_“I think he’s just exhausted. Without you, we’ve been pushing ourselves too thin,” he gently stroked Charlotte’s calf with his thumb._

_“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” she pouted and picked at her plate._

_Professor Membrane chuckled, “I’m sorry.”_

_Charlotte looked back up at the Professor and smiled, “Just be careful okay? At least take a nap.”_

_“That’s what the lunch break is for!”_

_He dodged the incoming hand._

_\---_

_Henry and Professor Membrane stood by the incubator, the Dodo bird was almost ready to be released from its chamber. Couple more weeks and this extinct animal will exist again. The Professor looked over at the datasheet again, everything was going smoothly for once. He let out a sigh of relief._

_“You two need a break.”_

_The pair looked up to see a very pregnant Charlotte with take-out bags in each hand. Professor Membrane ran over to her, taking the food off of her and placing it on the metal tables._

_“Charlotte, what are you doing here?! You should be home, resting!” The Professor fussed over her, grabbing a rolling chair and pushing it over to her._

_“I’ve been home all day! I needed a break!”_

_Henry snorted, “Needed a break from being home? You must really miss this place.”_

_Charlotte smiled, “More like I missed my fiance.” She pulled the Professor down to kiss his cheek and sat down on the chair he got for her._

_The Professor blushed and cleared his throat, “Yes...well...um...oh look! Food!” He turned around and grabbed the large styrofoam trays out of the plastic bags._

_Charlotte giggled at his awkward display, even after two years of being together he still got flustered so easily. She turned to Henry as he grumbled away behind his clipboard. “Are you okay?”_

_Henry stopped writing, the Professor and soon-to-be wife were staring at him. “I-I’m fine! I’ll...go get us some water from the lounge!” He ran out of the large workspace, not wanting to be the center of attention anymore._

_The Professor’s stare lingered at the door, “That’s odd. He seemed fine all day.”_

_“He just doesn’t like the attention, he’s been like that since he was an intern here.”_

_“Well, once we present our work, he needs to get used to the limelight,” he passed the container that was filled with plain rice, steamed vegetables, and baked chicken breast over to Charlotte._

_“I’m sure you’ll have most of the fame, Professor Membrane,” she smiled at her fiance and took the utensils from him._

_The Professor chuckled and grabbed one of the other trays of food, “You two deserve a lot of the credit, I couldn’t have done it without my team.” He took a bite out of the chow mein, “You really should’ve stayed home.”_

_“And what? Let you and Henry starve?”_

_“We have vending machines!”_

_Charlotte rolled her eyes, “Eating heavily dusted cheese puffs is not dinner.”_

_Henry walked back into the office while the couple bantered, carrying three water bottles with one tucked under his arm, companying the clipboard. He handed them the ones in his hands and grabbed another chair for himself. The three ate their dinner, talking about the Dodo bird behind them, and wondered what they could clone next if this one was successful. Henry and Charlotte talked about past pets, they would love to see their childhood dogs again while the Professor thought to himself._

_“Why not a human?”_

_The conversation paused as the two stared at the lead scientist._

_“I’m serious, why not a human? We could easily bring back the people who were revolutionaries!”_

_“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Charlotte chimed in after she set her empty tray down on the table. “We can’t be sure they’ll end up the same way as history was told. It could go wrong in so many ways.”_

_“We could teach them their history, make them understand they’re destined for greatness!”_

_“That’s way too much pressure on a person!” Charlotte flinched and held her stomach at the sudden contraction._

_The Professor rushed over to her, completely forgetting their debate to check on her. “Charlotte--”_

_“I’m fine! I’m fine. Not going into labor,” she rubbed the front of her abdomen, where the pain started. “Dib won’t be here for another few weeks.”_

_“Dib?” Henry asked._

_“Charlotte wants to name him, Dib. Personally, I believe Mark would be a better name, don’t you think?” The Professor gave Henry a pleading look, hoping the nervous scientist would agree with him and maybe Charlotte would change her mind on their son’s name._

_“I-I don’t know...I kinda like Dib,” Henry fidgeted with the edge of the styrofoam tray, trying to avoid the Professor’s intense eyes._

_“Yes! Thank you, Henry! See? Dib’s a great name, we’re naming him that,” Charlotte gave her fiance a large grin._

_Professor Membrane sighed in defeat, “Alright, fine. You win.”_

_“Oh, stop pouting! You can name our next child,” Charlotte was still smiling as she teased him._

_“Fine! Mark if it’s another boy and Gazlene if it’s a girl.”_

_“Well, I like the name Gazlene so hopefully it will be a girl next time.”_

_The two jokingly argued back and forth while Henry picked at his food with a fork._

_“Sheesh, it’s like you guys are already married,” he mumbled to himself as he focused on the cold meal on his lap. He jumped when he heard Charlotte laugh, his face warmed up in embarrassment; he didn’t expect anyone to hear his comment._

_“My parents say the exact same thing,” Charlotte slowly rose up from her chair as the Professor helped her. She squeezed his hand to show her appreciation and shuffled toward the door, “After I go to the bathroom for the two hundredth time today, I’m heading home.”_

_The male scientists watched the woman head out the door and turn right to the nearby restrooms. Henry closed his tray of half-eaten Chinese food and got up from his seat. He walked over to the table to clean up the mess while the Professor watched over the experiment once more. Henry disposed of the trash and grabbed his mentor’s leftovers._

_“I’m going to put these in the fridge at the lounge.”_

_“Alright. Make sure to write our names on them or Kyle is going to snatch them.”_

_Henry gave the Professor a thumbs up as he walked out of the room, leaving the lead scientist by himself with the Dodo bird. He checked on its vitals again, still stable. Charlotte shuffled back into the lab while she supported her lower back with her right hand, she smiled at the tall man who was lost in his own thoughts._

_“I’m heading off now.”_

_The Professor jumped, not realizing someone was in the room with him again, “I’ll walk you to your car.”_

_“You don’t have to--”_

_“I know,” he smiled and held Charlotte’s hand while she rolled her eyes._

_The two waited until Henry came back, not wanting to leave the experiment by itself, and walked out into the back parking lot to Charlotte’s usual space. The Professor helped her get into her car and kissed her good-bye, watching her start the engine and drive off into the night._

_\---_

_The days have been going excruciatingly slow for Professor Membrane. The cloning project was almost ready, Charlotte was in her third trimester, his day assignments were getting more attention than he thought; with his busy schedule, he assumed time would go faster, and yet here he was, standing by the incubator for the fifth day in a row. He sighed. Exhaustion was getting to him, threes were looking like eights and he accidentally wrote with an old chopstick today, instead of his pen. Henry tried to help the best he could, he insisted the Professor to go home today and get some actual sleep but the lead scientist refused and stayed behind._

_“You look like you’re going to collapse at any second.”_

_Professor Membrane looked up to see Charlotte standing under the doorway with her arms crossed. He took off his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes, “Charlotte, what are you doing here?”_

_“Henry called me, he’s worried about you,” she walked over to him and held his hands, “I’m also worried about you. You’re barely home.” She gently stroked his cheek, “You haven’t been sleeping.”_

_He gave her a weak smile, “How can you tell?”_

_“Have you looked in the mirror lately?” She smirked._

_The Professor sighed, “I’m sorry, Charlotte.”_

_“For what?”_

_“For not being there for you. I’ve been trying to find more time, I just--”_

_“I know. It’s okay,” she brought him down to kiss his cheek. “But you won’t last long if you keep trying to juggle all of these at once. You need a break.”_

_“I will! Once I finish this project--”_

_“Once you finish this project, you’ll move onto another one. I know you, Professor Membrane.”_

_He flinched at Charlotte’s harsh tone, she was right too; he was already thinking of another project._

_Charlotte sighed, “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad, but what’s going to happen when Dib is born? I’m going to need help and I don’t think you would enjoy my mom moving in with us.”_

_The Professor cringed at the idea of her mother living with them, criticizing every little thing he does, “I...wouldn’t...mind that…”_

_Charlotte laughed, “You’re such a horrible liar!”_

_Professor Membrane couldn’t help but laugh with her, “Alright, I would hate it.” He leaned down to kiss her, “But I will always be there for you and Dib.”_

_“Then will you come home tonight? Please?”_

_He brought her close to her and rested his chin on the top of her head, “Okay.”_

_“D-does this mean I can come in now?” Henry peeked from around the corner._

_“Henry! How long have you been there?” Professor Membrane smiled at his coworker._

_The awkward man blushed and adjusted his glasses, “Um...this...whole time?”_

_The Professor chuckled, “Well, I guess I am going home for tonight. Call me if anything goes wrong.” He held Charlotte’s hand as they walked over to the hallway._

_“W-will do!” Henry watched the couple shuffle out of the facility until he couldn’t see them anymore._

_Charlotte walked over to the driver’s side of the door, pressing the unlock button twice but was stopped by a very overworked scientist._

_“I’ll drive.”_

_“Uh, no you will not! You’re sleep-deprived!”_

_“I can still drive us!”_

_Charlotte crossed her arms and glared at her fiance, “Get in the passenger seat, Professor Membrane.”_

_“But Charlotte--”_

_“Now!”_

_He sighed in defeat, “Yes, ma’am.”_

_Charlotte grinned as she watched him get into the passenger’s side while she slowly eased herself into the driver’s seat. She closed the door, put on her seatbelt, and started the engine; the car came to life, music blasted from the radio. Charlotte flinched, forgetting how loud it was, and turned it down. She looked over to the Professor, he was struggling to keep himself awake._

_She giggled as she pulled out of her parking space, “Still awake enough to drive us home?”_

_Professor Membrane gave her a cheeky grin, “Okay, I get it. You’re always right, I need to listen to you.”_

_Charlotte shook her head, “And yet, you don’t.”_

_The two teased each other on the drive home, Charlotte stopped at an intersection until the light turned green and stepped on the gas. Professor Membrane remembered a bright light getting closer to Charlotte. He remembered the yellow glow surrounding her from the headlights of the other car, the light was consuming her. He remembered him screaming to her, yelling at her to watch out, she was turning to him when the car got rammed on her side. Then it went dark._

_\---_

_Professor Membrane groaned, his head felt like it was splitting open, his left hip was sore, and a sharp pain went through his knee when he tried to shift into a more comfortable position. He looked down at his exposed robotic arms, at least those were still intact. He shifted his gaze around the room he was in: white walls, white floors, white sheets, the smell of antiseptic in the air, a steady beep next to him. A hospital. Why was he in a hospital? Charlotte. Car accident. Where was she?_

_“Professor!”_

_He tried to speak, but he coughed instead. Henry quickly grabbed a plastic cup that was next to the Professor’s bed with a pitcher of water. The short scientist gently handed him the cup, his mentor quickly chugged the water._

_“Where...where is Charlotte?” His voice was still hoarse, how long was he out?_

_Henry flinched, “I-I’ll go get the doctor.”_

_“Henry. Where. Is. Charlotte.” He was running out of patience._

_“Professor Membrane! I’m glad you’re awake. You’ve been out for a while,” a young man in blue scrubs and a stethoscope around his neck came out behind the curtain, interrupting the tense conversation. Henry let out a sigh of relief as the doctor shooed him away. “I’m Doctor Dorian, I’ll be in charge of you tonight. How are you feeling?”_

_“I’m fine. I need to find my fiancée, I need to know if she’s alright, please. Her name is Charlotte Ramírez.” He spewed out the information as quickly as possible._

_“Woah, okay. Slow your horses, Professor. Let me check on your--”_

_“I don’t have time for this! She’s pregnant! I need to know if she’s alright!” He shouted at his doctor, he didn’t care if there were other people in the room or the fact that he was scaring the young man._

_The doctor picked up the chart, attached to the end of the Professor’s bed, and walked over to him. “I know you’re under a lot of stress right now but I need to take a look at you first and then I’ll go look for your fiancée, okay?”_

_Professor Membrane glared at him, “I’m fine.”_

_Dr. Dorian ignored him and checked on his vitals, shown on the monitors, “Your heart rate and blood pressure is elevated but I’m sure that’s because you’re…” He stared at the Professor’s vexed expression, “...angry.” The young doctor quickly wrote down on the chart and put it back in its cubby. “I’ll go check on Ms. Ramírez,” he ran out of the room._

_The Professor has been glaring at the exposed doorway for the past thirty minutes, completely ignoring Henry’s efforts of comfort. He was about to get up until Dr. Dorian came back into the room with a somber expression. The doctor closed the curtains around them as Henry walked out of the room again, he pushed the chair closer to the scientist's bed and sat down._

_“Professor Membrane, your fiancée is in the ICU. A drunk driver hit the side of your car. She took most of the impact…”_

_Dr. Dorian kept talking to the Professor, telling him Charlotte was in a coma, she needed emergency surgery to get the baby out, Dib didn’t survive the crash, Charlotte was on a ventilator, her survival didn’t look promising. Professor Membrane stared at his hands as the doctor told him this information, he felt completely numb, he wasn’t in his body, this was all a bad dream and he’ll wake up tomorrow next to Charlotte._

_“I’m so sorry,” the doctor stared at the man who looked completely empty._

_\---_

_Once he was out of the hospital, he went straight back to work. He didn’t have time to mourn, Charlotte’s parents were mourning enough for him. People stared at him, gave him looks of pity. He hated it. He didn’t need their pity. The Professor slammed his door shut and sat down on his chair. One of his journals was on the desk, he picked up his gold pen and started writing. He didn’t know what he was writing about but he couldn’t stop. His breathing was getting more and more shallow as he wrote, he paused when he realized he was crying. A drop landed on the page, the ink bled around the water, ruining the paper. He clutched the pen as more tears fell on the page, frustration was building inside of him. He shouldn’t be crying, he should be working. Professor Membrane grabbed at the pages he wrote and tore them out. Crumpling them into a tight ball and throwing it somewhere, anywhere. He didn’t care._

_\---_

_He scratched at his knee, still in a brace from the accident, he leaned heavily on the table in his personal lab at home. The coordinator made him go home after he yelled at an intern for spelling something wrong. It didn’t matter, he was going back to check on the Dodo anyways. Henry has been watching it closely, a couple of more days and it’ll be ready._

_Charlotte’s parents have been calling him nonstop, asking why he wasn’t at the hospital. He told them he was busy with work and to stop pestering him. Charlotte is going to wake up, she has to, and when she does, he’ll have their son in his arms, waiting for her. He didn’t have time to rest, he needed to work._

_\---_

_Henry and Professor Membrane looked at the Dodo in amazement. It was alive and incredibly clumsy. It flapped its tiny wings when it stared at Henry and ran toward him. The short scientist flinched, thinking it was going to attack, but it instead nuzzled its beak on his leg._

_“I guess i-it thinks I’m its mom?” Henry tried to make a joke, but the Professor didn’t laugh. He blankly stared at the small bird._

_“We need to clean out the incubator.”_

_“What? Why?"_

_"We’re doing another experiment.”_

_“Professor Membrane, we cloned an extinct animal! We should go to the board--”_

_“NO!” He screamed at the poor man, scaring him and the bird. “I mean...no. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell.”_

_“I-it’s okay, Professor. W-what’s our next project?” Henry clutched at his clipboard._

_“We’re going to clone a human. My son,” he turned around and leaned on the glass of the incubator. “We need to disassemble this and bring it to the lab in my basement.”_

_Henry furrowed his brows and walked over to the disheveled man while the Dodo followed behind him, “A-are you sure? I don’t think--”_

_“When Charlotte wakes up, she'll get to see our son.”_

_“Professor…”_

_“I am not telling her we lost our baby boy, Henry. She’ll just blame herself,” he kept staring at the green fluid that was trapped in the incubator. “Now let's clean this and get it to my lab.”_

_\---_

_Another failure, he can’t take another failure. Clone after clone, with no results. He made more incubators, smaller ones, all lined up in neat rows, and observed them every day. Henry tried to help as much as he could, but nothing would satisfy the man._

_Charlotte was still in the hospital and he hasn’t visited her once. He couldn’t, not until he successfully clone their son. Her mother came by earlier today, screaming at him for not truly loving her daughter and telling him he’s a coward. He didn’t care, he let her scream and cry while he stood there._

_Dib 184 was ready to be extracted, but he knew it would be the same result. He took out the clone from its nourishing chambers, he wrapped it in a thin blanket and tried to get any sort of reaction from the baby. Nothing. The Professor sighed, after the first fifty, he didn’t feel anything but frustration. The stab in the heart was gone, the nausea and dizziness disappeared, the sadness turned numb. He looked up at the original incubator, Dib 198 was a special one. He paid close attention to this one, creating a new Dib that combined his and Charlotte’s best attributes._

_Professor Membrane gently set Dib 184 on his lab table, he grabbed a ballpoint pen and wrote down another entry in his journal._

_\---_

_He missed her funeral. He couldn’t go. Not that he was invited. Since they weren’t married yet, it wasn’t his decision to take her off the ventilators. He stayed in his lab with Henry, making more clones of his son. He buried himself in his work while his fiancée was lowered into the ground._

_Dib 206 didn’t wake up. None of them ever did. Professor Membrane threw his notebook at the wall, angry at himself for not being better. He didn’t understand why it wasn’t working, he tested everything and triple-checked his work, and yet he still didn’t have a son. His anger got the best of him as he smashed an empty incubator, and another, and another. The green fluid was all over the floors and on himself. He almost broke another one when Henry stopped him._

_“Professor...please stop…”_

_The disgruntled scientist panted as he looked around his lab, it was a mess. He was a mess. He pushed his coworker away from him as he walked up the stairs of his basement and ran outside. Cold air hit his flushed face, he took a large breath and watched it expel from his body. Fall was turning into winter, it’s already been two years since the accident. He took another breath as Henry placed a hand on his shoulder._

_“I don’t know how much more I can take, Henry.”_

_The short scientist gently squeezed his mentor’s shoulder, “You need a break, Professor.”_

_He stayed silent as he adjusted his black rubber gloves, Professor Membrane turned around to face his colleague, “One more. We can do one more.”_

_Henry frowned at the tall man in front of him, “A-are you sure?”_

_“Yes. I promised her.”_

_\---_

_It was early in the morning, he stared into his coffee cup while the other scientists gathered around the whiteboard, discussing their next invention. He took a small sip, still not as good as Charlotte’s. The Professor slightly jumped when someone cleared their throat behind him. It was the director of the laboratories._

_“Professor Membrane, may I speak to you in my office?” He gave the scientist a tight-lipped smile._

_“Yes, of course.” He set down his coffee on a nearby counter. The room went silent as everyone watched the two men walk out the door._

_The Professor sat down on the plush chair, much more comfortable than the ones in his office. He watched the director lean back in his seat and studied the scientist very closely._

_“First, let me say I’m sorry for your loss. Charlotte was a wonderful woman.”_

_Professor Membrane closed his hands into tight fists, angry that everyone was sorry for him, “Yes. Yes she was.”_

_“How are you feeling, Professor?”_

_“Fine. Just fine.”_

_“Really? Good. Any new personal projects I should know about?”_

_So that’s why he wanted to speak to him, “No, why?”_

_The director leaned toward the brilliant scientist, “A little birdie told me that you have been cloning different specimens, is that correct?”_

_The Professor’s stoic expression turned into a scowl, “So who told you? The janitor?”_

_“Your research partner, actually.”_

_“Henry? Why?”_

_“He told me you two brought back an extinct animal, is that true?”_

_The scientist stood up from his chair, “Why would Henry tell you this?!”_

_“Answer the question, Professor Membrane. Yes or no?”_

_He glared at the man who could easily fire him, “Yes.”_

_“That’s quite impressive, we usually don’t condone these types of experiments but the board of trustees are interested in your discoveries. You will be meeting with them tomorrow to discuss your latest project.”_

_“And if I don’t want to?”_

_“Well, that would be unfortunate but we would confiscate everything and destroy all of your hard work. You wouldn’t want that, would you?” The director gave him a mocking grin while he laced his fingers on his desk._

_Professor Membrane gritted his teeth, “What time?”_

_“7 AM. Do not be late.”_

_The Professor walked out of the luxurious office, anger rolling him off in waves as he took the stairs down from the third floor. He marched over to the room where the other scientists were gathered and grabbed Henry._

_“Who the hell gave you the right to tell them about MY project?!” He towered over the small cowering man, he got closer as he yelled._

_Everyone watched in shock as Henry apologized profusely while the Professor glared at his coworker. He let go of the shorter man, pushing him away as he stormed off. He went home early that day, he didn’t need to hear the gossip of his mental breakdown. Dib 207 needed his attention._

_Professor Membrane stared at the small human being in the original incubator Charlotte designed. He rested his hand on the warm glass, gently stroking it while he thought about what would have been. He hung his head, tears started to form in his eyes, his stomach was in knots._

_“Professor?”_

_He froze at the timid voice, how the hell did he get in?_

_“Y-you left the door unlocked,” Henry fidgeted with the sleeves of his white button-down shirt._

_Relief washed over him, he didn’t want to think about the woman with the warm smile he would never see again. He was glad that Henry was there, that emotion quickly turned sour as he thought about the meeting the next morning._

_“Why are you here?” His eyes were focused on the brown tile of his lab._

_“I-I wanted to apologize. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just thought it would be a good distraction from…” Henry trailed off, he didn’t want to say anything else that would anger his mentor more._

_Professor Membrane scoffed, “From what?”_

_“Just...stress,” he stepped closer to the defeated man, “This will be good for you! I’m sure of it!”_

_The Professor stayed silent, watching the green fluid traverse around the incubator, around the clone._

_\---_

_The chair he was sitting in was unstable, the left back leg was missing a rubber stopper. He kept rocking back and forth from the nerves, the knot in his stomach was back with full force as the board all walked into the room and sat in their collective seats._

_“Good morning, Professor Membrane,” an old man with a receding hairline and square glasses spoke up first._

_“Good morning,” he replied back as his chair stood on its three stable legs._

_“We don’t have much time today, I would like to jump straight to it.” The old man grabbed the piece of paper in front of him, reading the report Henry typed up. “It says here that you and Mr. Aston successfully cloned a Raphus cucullatus within two months.”_

_“Yes, that’s correct.”_

_“It also says you have been trying to clone your son for the past two years without any success, and you need a break from this environment.”_

_The chair fell back on the missing stopper, “I’m sorry, what?”_

_“Professor Membrane, your work here has been excellent but it seems you have been under a lot of stress recently,” another gentleman from the far left spoke out._

_“Mr. Ashton has shown us pictures of your experiments in your personal labs. He also stated that you destroyed most of the equipment because of an emotional outburst.”_

_The Professor shot up from his seat, “He said what?!”_

_“Other employees here have said you have been unstable since the loss of your fiancée and unborn son.” Another man spoke up._

_“That is not true! I have been--”_

_“Professor Membrane, we have all agreed to put you on vacation starting now to help with your mental stability.”_

_“I don’t need--”_

_“However, you must stop your research on cloning technologies and give back all the equipment you took.”_

_He was beyond angry at this point, he wanted to scream at the old men, cause a scene and break everything in the room but he knew that’s exactly what they wanted. His hands were in tight fists, his gloves squeaked from the friction. He couldn’t hide his scowl as he looked at them as he reluctantly spat out, “Fine.”_

_The Professor ran out of the room, he heard Henry call out to him but that made him run faster. He could feel the stares on him, the judgment and pity were maddening. The back door to the parking lot slammed open, his sprint turned into a brisk walk toward his car. He quickly unlocked it and got into the driver’s side, he started the vehicle and swiftly turned out of his parking space, the tires screeched from the sudden movement. It was starting to snow on the drive home, he clenched at the wheel as he passed a certain intersection. His breathing became shallow and he was starting to sweat, the thought of Charlotte was like a stab to his heart. A loud honk behind him brought him out of his mind, realizing he was going twenty in a forty-five mile zone. The car went around him, speeding off while the Professor made a left turn to enter the residential part of the city._

_The garage door closed shut as Professor Membrane walked into his house, he tossed his keys onto the dining table and opened the basement door. He stared into the dark, trying to will himself down to check on Dib 207. If they wanted all the equipment back, that meant Charlotte’s original incubator. His hand tightened around the doorknob to the point that it broke off, sending small parts onto the floor. The Professor cursed, dropping down to pick up the pieces and place them on the table. He’ll throw that out later, he flipped the switch next to the doorway inside the basement and watched the room light up. The lab was much colder, being underground, he really needed to set up a heater._

_The Professor wrote down in his notebook of Dib 207’s vitals with another entry, everything was healthy. Good sign. He rubbed his forehead from the stress headache, they’ve been becoming more frequent. A loud doorbell ring could be heard from upstairs, someone was here._

_He stared at the person in front of him when he opened the door, “What are you doing here?”_

_Henry shifted his feet as the Professor glared down at him, “Please, can we talk?”_

_“Why? So you can go tell the board I’m having another mental breakdown?” He almost slammed the door shut, but the smaller man blocked it when his body._

_“I didn’t tell them about Dib 207! You can still have him!” He looked at his mentor with pleading eyes, “Please, Professor Membrane. Let me explain.”_

_The Professor sighed and stepped back to open the door, he was tired of this, “You have five minutes.”_

_Henry stepped inside as the frustrated scientist closed the door, “You needed a break!”_

_“Ha! That’s why you went to the board and told them about my son?”_

_“Yes! Professor, you haven’t had the time to grieve. You’ve been burying yourself further and further into this experiment and it’s not healthy!”_

_“Well, now they’re getting rid of my hard work! They’re taking everything!”_

_“Not Dib 207! I made sure of that! This one will be different, I know it.”_

_“How?” The Professor took a step closer to his coworker, “How would you know that?”_

_Henry fidgeted with the hem of his shirt, “W-we would be focused on this one and you would be home instead of the labs. We were handling too many things at once, at least this one could have a chance of making it.”_

_The Professor narrowed his eyes at his nervous colleague, “Stop lying to me, Henry.”_

_“I-I’m not--”_

_“I can tell when you’re lying, we worked together for over five years! What is so different about Dib 207?”_

_Henry focused on the carpet, “Nothing! I just…”_

_“You, what?” His patience wore off as Henry stayed quiet, the Professor grabbed him by the shoulders and shook the small man, “What did you do?!”_

_“I cloned you! Not Dib! I decided to clone you!”_

_The whole house felt colder, the two men stood in the living room as silence filled the space. Professor Membrane faced away from his research partner, rage quietly simmered within him._

_“Tell me why and after you do, leave. Never come back here ever again.”_

_Henry felt tears well up in his eyes, “When you mentioned you wanted to clone human beings, I thought about cloning you. You’ve always been so brilliant and I admired you for so long...but after the accident, you became obsessed over the family you lost. You couldn’t focus on anything else! I just thought, maybe, if there was another Professor Membrane out there...then…” He couldn’t finish his sentence and choked down a sob, “I’m sorry.”_

_Professor Membrane stood by his window as another person in his life walked away, cutting off more ties, leaving him alone in the empty house. He marched back into his lab, his rage was still burning inside of him. Dib 207 was still peacefully suspended in the life-sustaining fluid, healthy and alive. It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. The scientist quickly wrote down his anger on the page of his notebook, gripping the pen so hard that it broke in two. He clung to the past entries, grinding his teeth as angry tears cascaded down his face. The book toppled onto the floor as the Professor slowly fell to his knees, the anger dissipated to sorrow. He cried for the woman he never got to marry and for the son he lost._

_\---_

_Dib 207 never had any problems, while the others struggled to stay alive in the incubator. Professor Membrane stood by with a blank stare, there were many times where he wanted to pull the plug on the machine but couldn’t bring himself to do it. He watched the timer tick down, just a few more minutes._

_He debated with himself whether to keep the clone or not. It wasn’t Dib, it was just another Professor Membrane. If he did keep Dib 207, would he raise it as his own? How would he turn out? Should he rename him? Would he be exactly the same as him?_

_One minute remaining._

_The Professor walked up to the incubator and pressed the black square button on the left side, the large cylinder slowly pushed itself upwards. The timer went off as the incubator finished situating itself into an upright position. Professor Membrane grabbed a step ladder, trying to get better leverage to release the top latch and get Dib 207 out of the green fluid. He reached in and carefully pulled out the child, cradling the small thing as it started to wail. The Professor started to panic, he wasn’t expecting a reaction so quickly. He ran to the table to snatch the neatly folded blue blanket and swaddled the crying baby._

_“There, there. No more crying, it’s okay,” he gently swayed to calm the upset child in his arms. The Professor couldn’t help but notice his head was abnormally large, maybe he would grow into it._

_Dib 207 finally calmed down to stare at its creator, gurgling at the man who was holding him closely._

_The scientist couldn’t help but smile, “Hello, Dib.”_

_His smile wavered as he stared at his clone, hot tears trailed down his face. He couldn’t help but wonder what Charlotte would think about all of this. The Professor chuckled, she would probably scold him for obsessing over their child for over two years. The son they lost never got a chance at life, never got to experience the love the Professor had for him, will never grow up._

_But this Dib, would._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that is the tale of Charlotte and Professor Membrane. No upload next week, I have midterms next week and this chapter is long so I hope this satisfies you guys for two weeks xD Thank you all for reading and leaving kudos, it means a lot.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back! It's been a whole week since I updated and all I can say is, I'm so stressed out it's not even funny. I have a five page essay due Monday, I have another paper to write, and I'm taking two art classes which are time consuming. I feel like I'm drowning. Someone halp.

The three stayed quiet as the walls sunk back into the ground, grass replaced the brown tiles, the sun was slowly setting while clouds started covering the night sky. Dib held onto the books as close to him as possible, he wanted to hold them after they witnessed Charlotte get hit by a car. He didn’t know what to feel, he was definitely Dib 207, but his father kept him and raised him. He still had Dib’s name, but Professor Membrane called him a failure. Confusion was setting in as his thoughts swarmed around his mind, he was hoping these journals would bring peace but it brought on more questions. He picked at the frayed ends of the butcher’s twine while he kept his gaze onto a dead patch of grass in his backyard. 

Zim stared at his mortal enemy, so he was a clone. That made more sense. When he tried to make a clone of Professor Membrane, he took Dib-thing’s DNA and picked out the traits of his parental unit. Except when he did, the DNA sequence was incomplete and he had to fuse whatever was in his lab that was closest to humans. The goldfish GIR swallowed whole while they were at the pet store, days before the experiment, had to suffice. 

He turned his attention to the witch, she has been quiet since they watched that Charlotte-human die. She stopped paying attention when they saw Professor Membrane break down the first time in his office. Her knuckles were white as she clung to herself, she kept her focus on the horizon line, watching the sun disappear. He didn’t understand why she was getting so distraught over this.

Zim scoffed, “You humans are pathetic.”

The two magicians snapped out of their thoughts and looked at the alien.

“Excuse me?” Kaya shifted her body to face Zim.

“So Dib-stink is a clone! Who cares?! Why are you two so sad about it?”

“That’s not why I’m sad, Zim!” Dib pointed at his rival.

“Then why are you crying?!”

Dib quickly checked his face, no tears, “I’m not! What are you talking about?”

“You were pathetically sobbing hours ago!”

“Wha--? How do you know that?!” Dib angrily glanced at Kaya, she wasn’t paying attention to the argument anymore. She was staring into the sky again.

“Because you humans get overly emotional about everything!” 

“THAT DOESN’T ANSWER MY QUESTION!”

“YES, IT DOES! YOU’RE JUST STUPID!”

The two argued as Kaya watched a cloud cover up Venus. She thought about the journals as she observed the sky, she understood what Professor Membrane went through. She was still going through it. Her focus went back on the idiots who were screaming at each other, she rolled her eyes and walked into the warm house. The TV was blasting from the living room while a purple-haired girl cursed loudly at the screen. Kaya grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen and strolled over to the couch.

“Where have you been?” Kaya asked and sat down next to Gaz, watching her play a random video game.

“School. I run a club every other day.” Gaz kept her eyes on the large screen TV while her character ran across a battlefield.

“Cool. What club?”

“Gaming.”

“I’m not surprised by that.”

Gaz cursed again as one of her teammates died in front of her, “Moron!”

Kaya smirked as she watched, drinking her water and sinking back into the couch.

“You staying another night?” Gaz’s character ran around a corner to take cover and threw a grenade at the enemy.

“Nah, I’m heading over to Zim’s. All my stuff is over there.”

Gaz quickly glanced at the girl, “You live with that idiot?”

Kaya shrugged, “Eh, kinda. It’s more like I’m forcing my wonderful presence onto him.”

A winning title screen flashed on the TV as the skilled gamer took down the last enemy. She placed the controller next to her as she grabbed her soda from the coffee table. “So did you talk to my brother or do I need to punch him in the gut?”

Kaya snorted, “Yeah I talked to him.” She thought about Charlotte, “Not sure if he’s better though.”

Gaz narrowed her eyes at the strange girl, “Look, Dib annoys the living shit out of me every single day but he’s still my brother. So if you hurt him, I’ll hurt you. Got that?”

The magician smirked and took another sip of her water, “Yeah, I get it. Don’t worry, I’m not here to hurt him.” She set down her glass on the side table, “I might hurt Zim though.”

Gaz huffed at her joke, she grabbed her phone from her back pocket and tossed it to the girl beside her, “Give me your number, I actually enjoy your company.”

“Wow, was that a genuine compliment?” Kaya quickly called herself on Gaz’s cellphone and handed it back to her.

“Yeah, don’t get used to it. What’s your name?”

“Kaya.” She stood up from the couch and gathered the clothes that were on the coffee table while Gaz input the magician’s name into her cellphone. 

“Where is Dib, anyways?”

“Outside, fighting with his alien boyfriend,” she finished off her water and held the glass with her right hand while she tucked the clothes under her left arm.

Gaz let out a rare laugh, “Okay, you’re officially better than everyone in this stupid city.”

“Wow, two compliments in one night. I better get going before you start hating me.”

The girls exchanged goodbyes, Gaz stayed on the couch to play another round while Kaya walked into the kitchen to quickly wash her glass and exited out the back door. She was expecting the two boys still screaming at each other, instead, Dib was outside, alone and scowling.

“Where did Zim go?”

“Who cares?” He grumbled as he trudged past her. 

Kaya rolled her eyes, “Okay, well I’m heading off. Thanks for letting me stay here, I guess.” She shifted her weight to start walking away when Dib stopped her.

“Wait! Where are you going?”

“Zim’s house. I’ve been pretty much living with him for a week before I passed out, he somehow hasn’t noticed.”

Dib scoffed, “Of course not, he’s so focused on himself that he doesn’t realize his surroundings.”

Kaya gave him a questioning look, “Wow, tell me how you really feel about him.”

Dib took the sarcastic remark as an invitation to rant, “He’s a giant jerk! He thinks he’s better than everyone else when he’s not! He’s been trying to take over Earth for years and I’m always the one who stops him! Earth needs me! Did he tell you about the time he turned us into bologna?!” He kept going with the story while Kaya stood by with a bored expression, he was sure she wasn’t listening but he was too engaged with his own ramblings to care, “And there was this one time on Mars--”

“I’m going to stop you right there.”

“But--”

“No! No more. I get it. Zim is an alien that causes chaos,” she turned to leave but the boy with a huge head stopped her again.

“Wait!”

“What now?”

Dib fidgeted with the bow on top of the stack of journals, “When are we practicing magic?”

Kaya sighed, “Tomorrow. I’ll text you when the wards are back up.” She started walking away until she stopped on her own and faced Dib. “You should really talk to your dad, by the way.”

He looked up to stare at the female magician, surprised she even cared, “Uh, yeah...I was planning on it.”

“Good.”

Dib watched the confusing girl saunter over to Zim’s base, her figure disappeared around the corner while he stood there. He looked up at the sky when he felt water drop on his hand.  _ Looks like it was going to rain tonight. _ He sighed as he dragged himself back inside to hear the TV blasting with gunshots and his sister shouting at one of her teammates. Her purple hair and hazel eyes were the same as Charlotte’s.  _ Is Gaz a clone too? _

“Are you just going to stand there like a weirdo or are you going to throw a tantrum and head upstairs?” Gaz kept playing her game as she talked to her brother.

Dib glanced at the books he was still holding and set them on the side table next to the couch. “Wanna have pizza for dinner?”

Gaz quickly gave her brother a quizzical look, “When do I not?”

Dib smiled and pulled out his cellphone, ordering from Bloaty’s Pizza hog while he sat on the couch and watched Gaz play her game.

\---

Kaya hummed to herself as she walked over to Zim’s weird green house. She didn’t mind the light drizzle of rain or the cold air blowing past her. By the time she reached her destination, her hair was damp and her hands were cold. She walked right in without any problems; GIR was on the couch watching an angry monkey while loudly drinking a Slurpee. She never understood how a robot could consume food or drink anything but she didn’t care enough to ask.

“I’m home!” She shouted out to the little robot.

GIR gasped, “YUNA! YOU’RE BACK!”

“Still not my name but whatever,” she watched the SIR unit jump off the couch and run to her, latching onto her leg while throwing the Slurpee onto the floor. The top of the drink popped off and left a sticky mess on the tile.  _ Zim’s not going to be happy about that. _ Kaya turned to the closet next to the giant TV and opened the door, her backpack and cellphone were still on the ground, waiting for her. She gently placed the clothes she got from Gaz on the floor and closed the door again. The magician stepped over the spilled drink and walked to the hidden panel in the kitchen. Her hands started to tingle as they warmed up, she pressed her palm on the wall and the secret elevator opened up. The robot attached to her leg showed her the little trick weeks back, not wanting to request the computer to take her down to the labs every time. Kaya stepped inside the elevator, pressed the button with the “L” on it, and waited while “Daybreak” played in the background.

“When did you guys add music to the elevators?” She stared down at GIR but all he did was grin.

Kaya stepped out of the lift to see Zim on a hovering platform, fixing up the ultra robot she broke into small pieces out of frustration weeks ago. 

“Need any help?”

Zim screamed, he didn’t notice the witch or his robot minion were in his labs. “What are you doing here?! How did you get in?!” He yelled down from the platform.

“I drilled a hole under your base and crawled in,” she said sarcastically while watching GIR detach himself from her leg and dive into a pile of spare parts of the super robot.

“WHAT?! COMPUTER! HOW DID YOU NOT NOTICE THIS!” 

“Zim! I was joking! I just walked right in through your front door!”

“THAT’S WORSE!”

“HOW?!”

Zim took his welding goggles and gloves off while the platform lowered him to the ground, “YOU SHOULD’VE BEEN VAPORIZED BEFORE SETTING YOUR DISGUSTING GERM-RIDDLED BODY INTO MY PRECIOUS BASE!” He scowled at the female, keeping his eyes on her as he yelled to his computer, “WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP HER?!”

“Uh...because you never told me to?” the deep voice of the main computer echoed throughout the lab.

Kaya smirked as Zim’s already large eyes widened, “WHAT?! YES, I DID! DON’T LIE!”

“No, you didn’t!” The computer sassed back.

The magician rolled her eyes as Zim’s attention was shifted to his computer, both screaming at each other for being wrong. She walked toward the metal table she was furiously writing on a few days ago, the paper she brought was in a neat stack while her pens were bundled up with a thick rubber band. She furrowed her brows as she flipped through the stack of papers, red pen marks were scribbled above her original calculations; she couldn’t help but snicker to see comments on her doodles. The one of Zim laughing had a huge red “X” and a note saying:  _ ALMIGHTY ZIM DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THIS! _ She set the stack down and stared at the angry alien.

“Did you do this?”

Zim stopped shouting at his computer and turned to the annoying female, “YES! SO WHAT?!”

Kaya shrugged, “Nothing. I’m just impressed.”

Zim stared at the girl, thinking it was one of her jokes. He realized she was being serious and quickly adjusted his posture, “Oh. Well...YOU SHOULD BE!” The tall Irken stomped toward her, “Your calculations are all wrong! Most of them don’t even make sense!”

“Well, I’m not good with math or science!” Kaya crossed her arms as she made excuses for her horrible mathematical assessments.

“But all of the calculations are written in the stupid journal!” Zim scowled at her.

Kaya looked around the table, noticing the notebook wasn’t there, “Wait...where is it?”

“What?”

“The journal!” She tucked her hair behind her ear as she leaned down to look under the table.

“Dib-stink took it.” 

The magician stood back up, “Ugh! Seriously? I’ve been at that asshole’s place for over three days and he didn’t give it back?”

Zim gave her a blank stare, “How am I supposed to know how that huge head works?”

“It was a rhetorical question, Zim.” 

“Then why did you ask it?”

“I just said it was a rhetorical question!”

“THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF ASKING IT?!”

“ZIM--” Kaya stopped herself before she could get into another screaming match with the alien in front of her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “Let's just focus on the calculations for now.”

“Fine!” Zim grabbed the stack of papers and handed her the first ten pages, “These are the only ones that made sense. What are you even making anyways?”

Kaya folded the pages in half and set them next to her, “I need a portable version of the Perpetual Energy Generator that Professor Membrane made. He doesn’t know this but he made artificial magic.”

The loud alien narrowed his eyes at her, “I thought you said he was a magician as well.”

“That’s what I thought, but he’s definitely not a magician,” she leaned against the table as she spoke.

“How do you know this?”

“Because he could’ve easily saved Charlotte.” 

The two stood there, staring at each other. Kaya was holding onto herself again, her fingers digging into her arms. Zim arched his brow at her reaction, he didn’t understand why she kept getting upset over something that was so minuscule.

“Why do you care so much about this Charlotte-human? It’s not like you knew her.”

Kaya looked off to the side, focusing on a blank monitor, “Let's just say I know what Professor Membrane went through and never speak of this again.”

Zim scoffed, “Fine. But why do you need a smaller version of the generator?”

“I need one small enough to fit into a handle of a dagger but has enough magic to power the whole blade,” she swung her leg around to turn herself toward the tall space boy. “But the smaller it is…”

“...the less power it has.”

“Exactly. I can’t figure this shit out unless  _ you _ help me,” she smiled and poked her finger into Zim’s chest.

Zim leered at her and smacked her hand away from him, “And why should I, the AMAZING ZIM, help you?”

Kaya looked around the lab, “Because I’ll...fix your super robot thing.”

“You’re the one who keeps breaking it!” He shouted at her and jabbed at her shoulder.

“Well, you’re the one who…” She stopped herself when she heard him growling. Kaya sighed and stared at the ground as she mumbled, “Okay...I’m sorry. I’ll fix it.”

Zim stood back, surprised to hear an apology, a horrible one, but still an apology. He studied the human witch as she crossed her arms, she needed his help. He had the upper hand. The Irken smirked, his ruby red eyes narrowed down as his smile grew.

Kaya took a step back and knit her brows together, “Why are you staring at me like that?”

Zim chuckled, his voice lowered as he leaned toward her, “I have a perfect plan for you, Kaya-human.”

“I...don’t like the sound of that.”

\---

“So all I have to do is stand here and show them I could do magic?” Kaya watched Zim pace around his labs, going over the plan for the fifth time.

“Yes! And be respectful!” He glared at her as he stopped moving.

“Fine! But could you at least tell me why I’m doing this?” She couldn’t understand why this was so important to the self-righteous alien.

Zim hummed, “No.” He turned to the giant screen on the wall while Kaya stuck her tongue out at him. “Computer! Call the Almighty Tallests!”

The duo stood there in silence while the transmission was going through, Kaya didn’t know what to expect but she was surprised to see two very angry Irkens: one with red eyes and the other had purple. Both were hunched over like their attire were too heavy to stand up straight.

“My Tallests!” Zim saluted to them.

“Zim! We told you to  _ never _ call us again!” The red one shouted.

“Yeah! We’re still recovering from the Florpus hole you made us go through!” The purple one scowled and snatched a donut off a smaller Irken with a table on its head.

Kaya furrowed her brows,  _ what the fuck is a Florpus? _

Zim nodded along with his leaders, “Yes, yes, I know. I amaze myself, sometimes.”

The girl behind him couldn’t help but scoff at Zim’s self-praise, “Wow.”

Everyone’s attention turned to her. Zim glared at her while the two leaders gave her questioning looks.

“Uh...who’s that?” The red one asked.

“That’s why I called my Tallests! This human could be an asset for the Empire!” Zim grinned at his leaders, expecting praise from them.

“How? She’s just another inferior species!” The purple one said while stuffing his face with more donuts.

“This one has magic!”

The red one was about to speak but his companion cut him off, “Oh! Magic! I love magic tricks! Tell your human slave to show us a magic trick!”

Kaya gave the two a look of disgust, “Excuse me?”

Zim roughly grabbed onto her arm, “You heard them. Show my leaders a magic trick, you filthy human.”

Kaya maintained eye contact as she got closer to his face, lowering her voice, “Oh, I’ll show them a fucking magic trick.” 

“Hey, wait a minute...Zim! Something is different about you...Did you get more ugly?” The purple one leaned toward the screen, while the red one groaned and pulled the co-tallest back.

“Purple! Just shut up already so we can end the call!” 

_ His name is actually Purple. Of course, it is. I’m guessing the other one is Red. _ Kaya yanked her arm out of Zim’s iron grip and rubbed the tender spot. She glared at him while he glared back. 

Zim was so focused on being angry at the female next to him that he didn’t notice his leader insulting him, while Kaya ignored Purple’s last comment and faced the monitor again.

“GIR!” Kaya shouted.

The little SIR unit popped up from his hiding spot while holding his rubber piggy, “Yeeeesssss?”

“Give me a deck of cards.”

“Okie dokie!” GIR reached into his head and handed the girl a small box, mostly filled with random cards from different board games.

“GIR! I’M YOUR MASTER! NOT HER!” Zim shouted at his robot while he flailed his arms in Kaya's general direction.

Red couldn’t help but laugh, Zim’s own garbage SIR unit obeyed the human girl better than him. He snapped his fingers at a service drone with a bag of chips on its head, the small Irken ran to him and flinched when the Tallest snatched the snack off him. Might as well enjoy the show with some food.

Kaya fanned out the cards with her right hand, “Pick a card, any card.”

Purple pushed Red out of the way and raised his hand, “Ooh! I wanna pick one!”

Zim glowered at the scheming female, “What are you doing?”

The girl gave him an innocent smile while Purple picked a random card in the middle, “Showing them a magic trick.” She shuffled the mismatched deck with the skill of an experienced street magician, no one noticing her fingers were dancing around the edges of the playing cards. She looked back up to the Tallests, her fake smile wiped off her face, “Is this your card?” Kaya threw her hands toward the screen, the deck shot out from her grasp, and went through the monitor.

The Tallests shouted in surprise, dunking down to the floor as the thin plastic cards flew at them. Their snacks were tossed to the side and fought over by the technicians on board the Massive. The two quickly got back up, embarrassed that a human girl made them fall to their knees. Purple was shouting obscenities while Red looked behind them. The cards were stuck on the wall, making a perfect outline of the Irken leaders. Red turned back around to see Zim in complete shock and the girl sneering at them. 

“Don’t underestimate me again.” Kaya quickly marched to the elevators, pressing the up button to head toward the ground floor before Zim could snap out of his daze. 

Red watched the girl leave, completely silent while his co-tallest rambled about killing the human witch. He would have agreed with Purple but he couldn’t deny that he was impressed. She was shmillions of light years away and yet she almost gave them a paper cut. Okay, maybe it wasn’t  _ that _ impressive. He crossed his arms as he observed Zim panic and apologize profusely, begging them to not end the call. They had a few years of peace after the Tallests chewed the short Irken out for the Florpus incident. Purple even stripped his title as an Invader in front of everyone on the Massive and banished him to that backwater planet. Not that it mattered, Zim was technically a fast food drone. Red narrowed his eyes, something  _ was _ different about Zim.  _ Whatever, he’s just a defect. _ Another service drone came by and gave the Tallests replacement snacks. He picked up the bag of donuts and ate the glazed fried dough quickly, thinking about the human girl.  _ Zim might be right for once, she could be valuable to the Irken Empire. _

“I swear, if I see the horrible girl again, I’ll--”

“Zim, make sure she becomes submissive and swears to serve the mighty Irken race.” Red threw his empty paper bag over his shoulder after he cut off Purple, someone will clean it up later.

Purple’s jaw dropped as his eyes bulged out of his sockets, “Red...you can’t be serious.”

“M-my Tallest?” Zim looked confused, he thought he would be  _ permanently _ banished on Earth by that stupid girl’s stunt.

“That witch could be useful but she’s out of control, you need to teach her who is the superior race. I don’t care how you do it. Implant a microchip in her brain to obey, torture her, use emotional manipulation, break her. Just don’t kill her,” Red glared at the defective on screen, “Make sure she’ll obey us and only us.”

Zim nodded excitedly, “Yes! Of course! I can do that!”

Red rubbed his temples, he doubted that, “Good. Just don’t screw up and don’t make another Florpus.” He waved his hand to a random technician to end the call but was interrupted by the loud Irken.

“Wait! Does this mean…?”

Purple waited for his companion to say those dreaded words. He was still in shock.

“Yes. You’re an Invader again.”

Zim screamed in happiness, he thanked his leaders over and over again, rambling on and on about how great they were.

“BUT DON’T CALL US AGAIN UNLESS YOU MADE PROGRESS! IF YOU DO, I’LL GO TO THE CONTROL BRAINS MYSELF AND TELL THEM TO DEACTIVATE YOUR PAK!” 

“OF COURSE, MY TALLEST! I WON’T LET YOU DOWN! INVADER ZIM, SIGNING OFF!”

Red sighed in relief when the screen went black and turned to his equally tall companion who was staring at him like he went insane, “What?”

“Why would you do that?! Now we have to deal with Zim again!”

“Yeah, but when we get that girl on our side, we can get rid of that defect and the annoying Resisty.” He hovered down the long platform to inspect the mismatched playing cards protruding out the metal wall. 

Purple didn’t follow him, still pissed off that Red gave Zim another chance without consulting him, “Whatever. When he evidently screws up, you’re giving me all of your donuts Invader Jim sends us!”

Red waved him off, not really paying attention to the co-tallest while he stared into the wall. He knew the numbers of the Resisty were growing, the attacks were becoming more frequent. Purple has been much more laid back than he was, thinking they were safe on the Massive when a fleet of starships were around them at all times. Red knew better. Ever since the Florpus incident, they had to go off track from their beautiful linear path to figure out how to get back to their home planet. The Resisty found them every time they made a stop to get more snacks or fuel cells, someone was working for them. And he was going to find out who.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to let you guys know that I put a lot of references in this story and I hope you guys enjoy them as much as I do. Can you guys guess which show Kaya was watching in the last chapter?


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Short chapter today and more light-hearted. When I originally wrote chapter 13, I HATED it. Don't ask me why, I just hated it. Now, it's fine I guess but I just don't have a lot of confidence in my writing xD Anyways, enjoy!

Zim was absolutely ecstatic. He knew the Tallests would reinstate him as an Invader! Now he can get rid of the stupid human clothes he bought a while ago and order a new uniform! He adjusted his sleeves of the dark maroon fitted hoodie and dusted off his black jeans. Okay, maybe he’ll keep the jacket...and the pants...the shirt was fine too. Human sizes for clothing were weird, it took forever to find something that would fit his lean body, but at least they were comfortable. 

When the Tallests called him after they escaped the Florpus, he thought they would be impressed by the reality distorting vacuum, instead, they were completely enraged and stripped his title as an Invader. They  _ banished _ him onto this horrible planet. But with Zim being Zim, he refused his banishment and continued to believe it was a temporary situation until the Tallests calmed down a bit. After enduring that embarrassment, he felt he didn’t deserve the Invader’s uniform, but Zim knew there had to be a way to get the respect of his Tallests back. He thought it would be conquering Earth, instead, it was getting the infuriating human girl to obey his leaders. 

His gaze landed on the stack of papers on the metal table, he couldn’t believe that stupid human witch attacked the Tallests! He really could’ve been banished that time! His happy mood turned sour as he thought about Kaya. Zim scowled, now he had to figure out a way to make her an obedient servant. He contemplated putting a probe in her head as he did with Nick and programming it to obey him, but he doubted that would work. She had magic on her side and he barely knew anything about it. And if she went missing, the Dib-thing would go looking for her and get in his way. Every scenario Zim went through ended the same: the witch uses her powers, comes out alive, and teams up with his enemy. He sighed, there was only one situation he thought of that might work: help her kill whatever god she was talking about, learn more about magic, earn her trust, and then betray her. That also meant he had to help her build that portable generator she was talking about.

“GIR!”

The SIR unit dropped down from the ceiling from one of the many thick cables that ran through the lab, he swung back and forth in front of his master, “Hi!”

“Go get the human girl. She’s probably at her base,” he faced toward the elevators, might as well watch some mindless Earth show while he waited for the witch.

“But she’s upstairs!”

Zim stopped mid-step and turned to his idiot robot, “What?!”

“Yeah! She’s hangin’ out with Minimoose!” GIR kept swinging around as he spoke.

“That little--!” He stopped himself and took a deep breath, “GIR, stay here and keep an eye on the Super Mecha 3000 X.” The tall Irken walked to the elevators, one foot was on the platform until he turned back to his minion, “AND STOP DOING THAT! YOU’RE GOING TO BREAK SOMETHING!”

GIR nosedived into the spare parts on the ground and sprung back up, his eyes glowed red as he saluted, “Yes, sir!”

Zim kept his glare at the small robot as he stepped back into the elevator, watching GIR until the doors shut. The lift brought him up the trash can, he grabbed onto the sides of the blue bin and pushed himself out. The newly instated Invader walked into the living room to see the girl observing Minimoose with her head tilted slightly to her right.

“YOU--” Zim marched over to the girl, not realizing the spilled Slurpee on the floor, and slipped on the sugary drink. His head hit the hard tile, knocking him unconscious while the magician stood there in shock.

Kaya ran over to the knocked-out alien, eyes wide and eyebrows raised. She gently nudged the green boy with her foot, “Zim?”

He didn’t respond.

“Okay...maybe I should’ve cleaned that up,” Kaya stared at the mess, feeling slightly guilty for leaving it on the floor. She was going to make GIR do it but the little gremlin ran off somewhere. She tried picking up Zim’s dead-weight body but her lack of upper body strength made it difficult. A purple glow surrounded the green boy’s body, lifting him off the ground and gently placing him on the pink couch. 

Kaya stared at Minimoose, “How did you do that?”

“Nyah!”

“I have no idea what you’re saying.”

Minimoose squeaked, trying to explain to the girl that they have telekinesis, but she gave them a blank expression. They watched the magician go into the kitchen, rummaging through the large cabinet.

“Where does Zim keep his cleaning supplies? They can’t all be in his backpack thing.” She picked up a bowl that was half red and half purple, the top was sealed with a white plastic film and had a recurring symbol printed on it. Kaya faced the floating moose when she heard another squeak beside her, metal claws extended out from their back, and were holding out a roll of paper towels and a spray bottle. She set the bowl back into the cabinet and closed the door, “Oh, thanks.”

She grabbed the cleaning supplies from Minimoose and headed back into the living room to wipe up GIR’s mess.  _ When did I become the housekeeper? _ Kaya knelt down to soak up the Slurpee with the paper towels, she kept cleaning until she heard a groan from the couch.

Zim rubbed his aching skull as he got up,  _ what happened? _

“Wow, you recover quickly.”

Zim’s eyes shot open to see the annoying witch on his floors, wiping off a bright blue liquid that he slipped on. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!”

Kaya ripped off several sheets of paper towels and patted the ground, “I honestly don’t know how you don’t lose your voice.”

“Because my vocal cords are far superior to your human ones. NOW, ANSWER MY QUESTION!”

The magician gave the loud alien an exasperated expression, “Zim, think back like a week ago. Have you noticed anything about me? Anything at all?”

Zim narrowed his eyes, “YES! YOU’VE BEEN AROUND MORE AND IT’S ANNOYING!”

“Did you ever consider the fact that I’ve been living here?”

“HA! Yeah, right! I would’ve noticed a crazy, magic-fueled, human living in...my...base…” Zim’s amused smile slowly disappeared as he trailed off, his antennae pressed against his head as he thought about the human in front of him. He was starting to remember all the times he walked right past her in his living room, sleeping on the couch; she would be there when he got home, complain about the lack of bathroom, use the kitchen to cook her disgusting human meals. His eyes were getting wider and wider as he started to realize his predicament while Kaya laughed at his expression. “GET OUT OF MY BASE!”

“Nah, I kinda like it here. Could you get off the couch? I want to sleep,” she got up from the ground and handed back the towels and spray bottle to Minimoose.

“WHY WOULD YOU STAY HERE?! YOU HAVE YOUR OWN BASE TO BE HUMAN IN!”

“Because you caused a huge scene outside and people noticed a random girl living in an abandoned house! So as punishment, I live here now. You’re welcome.” She balled up the used paper towels, stuffed them into the large plastic cup GIR was drinking out of and walked into the kitchen; throwing it into the blue bin.

Zim followed her, watching her shove the trash into his disguised elevator, “THAT’S NOT AN ACTUAL TRASH CAN, YOU IDIOT!”

“Oh, shit.” Kaya picked up the garbage again, “I forget, okay? Why don’t you get an actual trash can?!” She waved the cup filled with sticky blue-stained napkins in front of Zim’s face.

The Irken snatched the waste from Kaya’s hands and extended his arm under a large open cylinder; it sucked up the trash into the ceiling.

“Where does that--?”

“The incinerator.”

“We have an incinerator?”

“ _ I _ have an incinerator and  _ you _ need to get out of  _ my _ base!”

Kaya walked over to the fridge to take out one of her many smoothies, she closed the door and leaned against it as she opened the plastic bottle, “Hmmm...no.”

Zim’s left eye twitched in annoyance, “Why not?”

“Because I have nowhere else to go!” She took a large drink of her smoothie.

“That’s not my problem!” He placed his hands on his hips, “Go find another vacant house!”

“Aww, but won’t you miss me?” Kaya gave the alien a sweet smile.

“NO! I WOULD NOT!”

“Nyah!”

Zim quickly turned to Minimoose, his face turned a darker shade of green, “How dare you say that, Minimoose?! You know I wouldn’t!”

Kaya arched her eyebrow at the two, “You can understand them?”

“Of course, I can! Only an idiot couldn’t!” He crossed his arms while the female gave him a deadpan expression. “What?!”

Kaya stayed quiet and walked around the tall alien to get to her backpack that was still in the closet. She could feel Zim’s questioning gaze as she looked through the bag and brought out the cheap sunglasses she modified years back. She stared at the small purple moose as she put on the aviators.

“HOLY SHIT!” She threw the glasses off her face and rubbed her eyes. Tears started to form as her eyes burned from the sudden bright light.

Zim couldn’t help but smirk to see the human girl in pain. He had no idea what just happened, but it was always nice to witness a disgusting Earth monkey in agony. He picked up the sunglasses Kaya tossed across the room and examined them. They seemed normal, he looked through the lens and brought it up to Minimoose; nothing happened.

“Ugh. I am never doing that again,” she wiped her tears with her hands and grabbed the smoothie she left next to her bag.

Zim brought the lens closer to face, “I don’t get it. Why are you overreacting?”

Kaya grabbed her sunglasses from the self-centered alien and glared at him, “It won’t work on you! And I’m overreacting? You scream over everything!”

“NO, I DON’T!” He leaned closer to yell at her until he realized he was proving her point. Zim cleared his throat and straightened himself out, “Zim is perfectly calm.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I AM!”

Kaya stood there with an amused smile, that boy contradicts himself left and right. She shook her head and turned to the cute floating moose who has been watching the two argue for the past hour. “What is Minimoose made out of?”

“Why do you need to know?” Zim glared at the back of her head.

“Because these sunglasses…” she shook her right hand that was holding the aviators, “...show me magic…” Kaya circled around Zim’s minion that looked like a hovering stuffed animal. “And your little friend here just blinded me with it. So, could you  _ please _ tell me what exactly Minimoose is made out of?”

Zim shrugged, not caring for this conversation anymore, “Nothing. Just titanium skeletal structure, a Vortian doomsday device, dark matter, radioactive rubber pants--”

Kaya’s eyes widened when the green boy mentioned dark matter, “What?!” She ran over to her backpack again, taking out her clothes and shoving them into the closet.

“HEY! YOU’RE MAKING A MESS!”

The frantic magician ignored him, she took out several thin spiral notebooks and shuffled through them. She stopped at the one with a pastel orange cover, flipping around the pages until she reached the subject about dark matter. Kaya quickly read through the notes and scoffed.

“Holy shit, he was right,” she whispered.

“What?” Zim walked over to the girl and took the notebook as she handed it over.

“My brother theorized that magicians created dark matter whenever we conjured a spell. He was working on harnessing dark matter from space to become the most powerful magician,” Kaya finished off her smoothie and put the cap back on. “That idiot.”

Zim read through the well-written notes, the handwriting was neater than Kaya’s and had multiple sketches of different symbols.  _ Spells, maybe? _ He closed the notebook and shoved it back into Kaya’s arms, “You have a sibling?”

“Had,” she corrected the tall boy as she stuffed the notebook back into the old bag.

The alien arched his eyebrow, expecting her to elaborate but only met with silence, “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Don’t you humans always over-share your stupid life stories?”

Kaya huffed in amusement, “Some, do. I don’t.” She stared into Zim’s ruby red eyes, “You know, I thought you would be way more pissed off at me considering I attacked your dumb leaders.”

Zim’s antennae perked up, surprised he forgot about that ordeal. Stupid head injuries. “Lucky for you, my Tallests decided to give you another chance.”

“Another chance at what, exactly?” She shifted her weight to her right hip and crossed her arms.

“To...impress them.”

The two narrowed their eyes at each other, not trusting one another.

“What if I don’t want to impress them?”

“Then I won’t help you with your generator,” Zim smirked.

Kaya took a step closer to the tall space boy, “I’ll just go to Dib.”

“Ha! You think that pathetic creature can help you? He could barely assemble a Voot Runner even if he tried!”

Kaya knit her brows together, “The hell is a--”

“His sad parental unit could barely clone himself! You need ALMIGHTY ZIM’S help!” He crossed his arms together and gave Kaya a smug grin.

“Dib’s ‘sad parental unit,’ made the damn generator! He could probably make one for me!”

“And what will you tell him? That you need it for magic? He won’t believe you and think you’re crazy,” Zim’s grin widened. 

Kaya let out a loud exhale through her nostrils, “I would...think of something.”

“Admit it. You need help from the amazing, brilliant, Zim!” He leaned down to be at eye-level with the girl, repeating the same question she asked the Dib-human hours ago, “Don’t you think you wasted enough time?”

Kaya gritted her teeth, as much as she didn't want to admit it, Zim was right. It would be easier (theoretically) and faster if he helped her with this. He already solved most of the calculations, all they need to do is refine it, build the damn thing, and hope it doesn’t explode. She doesn’t know how much longer she has until Ander finds her.

“Fine,” she reluctantly spat out. “What do you want in return?”

Zim stood back up, the smug grin still plastered on his face, “First, FIX MY SUPER MECHA 3000 X!”

Kaya flinched and leaned back, “Okay! God. Stop yelling.”

“Second, you will become one of my henchmen. You must obey every order I give you.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I DO NOT KID!” 

Kaya sighed as Zim yelled at her face again, “Fine! But I get to stay here!”

“Fine! But you have to clean up GIR’s messes!”

“FINE! BUT YOU HAVE TO INSTALL A BATHROOM FOR ME!”

“FINE! BUT YOU CAN’T ARGUE BACK!”

“I CAN’T ARGUE BACK THAT YOU INSTALLED A BATHROOM OR I CAN’T ARGUE BACK IN GENERAL?!”

“THE LAST PART!”

“WELL, THAT’S JUST IMPOSSIBLE!”

“YOU’RE IMPOSSIBLE!”

“I’M IMPOSSIBLE? YOU’RE THE ONE WHO YELLS AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY!”

“WHAT DOES THAT SUPPOSED TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!”

The two kept arguing back and forth while Minimoose watched. GIR came back up from the labs, he got bored staring at the giant robot after two minutes and ran around the room, hiding cans of tuna. He waddled over to his master and the pretty lady screaming at each other, situating himself down next to Minimoose to watch with them.

GIR smiled, “I love this show.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to thank everyone who gave me a kudos once more! I really appreciate all of you! But don't be afraid to comment! I would love some feedback or just drop a comment to say hi or something.


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